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DRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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brand’s 


CYCLOPEDIA 


OF 


tf^eful Knowledge 


FOR THE 


MAN /ND HOUSEKEEPER 


FARMER MECHANIC, BUSINESS 

Embracing the following , among many other subjects : 




tv 


Horses, Cattle, Sheep, Swine and Poultry ; Farming and How to make the 
Farm Pay; Mechanical; Household Economy; Curing and Storing; Hunt¬ 
ing and Fishing; Kitchen-Garden, Floriculture and Green House; 
Painting and Tanning; Cement, Glue, Paste; Bees, How to Raise 
and Manage; Medical or Home Doctor; Laws of Business ; In¬ 
sects and Farmers’ Enemies; Dairy and Butter Making; 
Household Pests and Remedies; Nursery, Orchard 
and Fruit Garden; Family Cook Book; Weeds 
and How to Destroy them; Budding, 

Grafting and Cuttings. 




£) 


SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION. 


X Ji , 

ST. LOUIS: 

W. S. BRYAN, PUBLISHER;'. 

A. L. Bancroft & Co., San Francisco. J. O. Robinson, London, Ontario. 

1879. 

r 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by 
HENRY W BRAND, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



St. Louis: 

Ryan, Jacks & Co., Printers. 





PREFACE. 


J~N these days of progress, people have come to the belief that 
something of value can be learned by reading books. Even 
old and experienced farmers no longer ridicule the idea of “ book 
farming,” while the mechanic often turns to the pages of a reli¬ 
able manual, to gain such information as may be of use to him. 

The housekeeper, more than all, relies upon the experience of 
others, and appreciates information thus obtained as it should be. 
To the Farmer, Mechanic and Housekeeper, such a work as the 
Cyclopedia is invaluable; in fact it is above price. It shows them 
thousands of ways how , not only to save labor , but also how to 
save dollars. This is the aim of this work, and an examination 
of its pages is only needed to satisfy any one, that any family can 
save by having this work in their possession. It differs from all 
other works in many respects. Every paragraph in the book is 
of value, each one showing how labor and money both can be 
saved. The illustrations are of a character that can but recom¬ 
mend the work, and so numerous that any one, in case he desires 
a model, but can be easily satisfied. We feel sure that the work 
will be appreciated, and once purchased, that it will be a family 
necessity. 


The Publisher. 



























CONTENTS. 


Horses, Cattle, Sheep, Swine and Poultry, 

The Farm—or, How to Make the Farm Pay, 

Mechanical,. 

Household Economy,.- 

Curing and Storing,. 

Kitchen-Garden, Floriculture, and Green-House, 

Floriculture,. 

Hunting and Fishing,. 

Painting and Tanning,. 

Cements, Glues, Pastes, Etc., - 

Bee-Keepers’ Guide,. 

Insects and Farmers’ Enemies, .... 
Dairy and Butter-Making, - - 

Household Pests and Remedies, 

Nursery, Orchard and Fruit Garden, 

Cooking and Baking,. 

Useful Recipes,. 

Weeds and How to Destroy Them, 

Budding, Grafting and Cuttings, - 

Medical or Home Doctor,. 

Accidents and What to Do,. 

Poisons and their Antidotes, .... 
Laws of Business, ------- 

Interest Tables,. 

Index, . 


PAGE. 

7-34 

35- 118 

11 9 " 1 63 

164-190 

191-218 

219-244 

245-257 

259-270 

271-284 

285-290 

291-298 

299-312 

3 1 3-3 1 7 
318-322 

323-354 

355-402 

402-408 

409-415 

4W-43 1 

433-465 

465- 466 

466- 468 
471-493 
494-501 

503 






BRAND’S 


Cyclopedia of Useful Knowledge. 

Horses, Cattle, Sheep. Swine and poultry. 



ANIMALS.— Common terms denoting- external parts. —For the 
benefit and interest of our young readers, we give in the annexed figures 
an explanation of the more common English terms used in describing the 
external parts of horses and cattle. The names being placed upon the 
parts designated, the impression is vividly and distinctly made through the 
eye, in a better manner than by the usual mode of references. 

The structure of a horse’s foot, which every one who owns a horse 
should understand, is distinctly exhibited in the above figure. 
















8 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


GESTATION OF ANIMiVLS.—The following is a complete and reli¬ 
able table of gestation of different animals: 



age for! 
action, i 

<u 

■5 c 

^o.2 
° Si § 

females 

i male. 

Period of 

Gestation and Incubation. 



Proper 

Reprodi 

Period 

pow< 

Reprodi 

0 § 

6 u 

Shortest 

period. 

Mean 

period. 

Longest 

period. 

Mare, 

Stallion, 


4 years. 

years, 
io to 12 

_ 

Days 

322 

Days 

347 

Days 

419 

- 

5 years. 

12 to IS 

20 to 30 

- 

- 

- 

Cow, 

- 

3 years. 

IO 

- 

240 

283 

321 

Bull, 

- 

3 years 

5 

30 to 40 

-• 

" 

- 

Ewe, 

- 

2 years. 

6 

- 

146 

154 

161 

Buck Sheep, 

- 

2 years. 

7 

40 to 50 

- 

- 

- 

Sow, 

- 

i year. 

6 

- 

109 

ii5 

143 

Boar, 

- 

I year. 

6 

6 to 10 

- 

- 

- 

She Goat, - 

- 

2 years. 

6 

- - 

150 

156 

163 

He Goat, - 

- 

2 years. 

5 

20 to 40 

- 

- 

- 

She Ass, 

He Ass, 

- 

4 years. 

IO to 12 

- 

365 

380 

391 

- 

5 years. 

12 tO 15 


281 

308 


She Buffalo, - 

- 

- 

- - - 

- 

335 

Bitch, 

Dog, 

- 

2 years. 

8 to 9 

- - 

55 

60 

63 

- 

2 years. 

8 to 9 


48 


56 

She Cat, 

- 

i year. 

5 to 6 

- 

5° 

He Cat, 

- 

i year. 

9 to 10 

5 to 6 

- 

- 

- 

Doe Rabbit, 

- 

6 months 

5 to 6 

- 

20 

28 

35 

Buck Rabbit, 

- 

6 months 

5 to 6 

30 

- 

- 


Cock, 

- 

6 months 

5 to 6 

12 to 15 

- 

- 

- 

Turkey, 

- 

- - 

- - - 

- - 

24 

26 

30 

Hen, 

- 

- 

3 to 5 

- 

19 

21 

24 

Duck, 

- 

- 


- 

28 

30 

32 

Goose, 

- 

- 

- - - 

- 

27 

30 

3° 

Pigeon, 

- 

- * 

- - - 

- - 

16 

18 

20 


ANIMALS— Doctoring sick.— One of the best systems of medical 
practice ever known, and which will probably stand at the head of the list 
for all coming time, is Nursing. Good care will do more than all the 
medicine in the world without it. Medicine is sometimes very good, but 
the most skillful physicians have found they could do but little with serious 
cases without that intelligent and careful watching at all times required for 
the removal or prevention of irritating causes, and known as good nursing. 

The writer once owned a horse suffering from an excessive cough. 
Numerous remedies were prescribed by kind neighbors, enough, doubtless, 
to have killed him at once. It was concluded to discard all, to give the 
best attention to his wants, and avoid everything which causes or prolongs 
a cold. This was during the changeable weather of Autumn—and he was 
blanketed whenever a chilly air was apprehended; he was worked very 
moderately, always avoiding perspiration, and he was fed on succulent 
food which was supposed to favor expectoration, and especially young 
clover. In a few weeks nature had performed a perfect cure; and if any 



















HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 9 

one of the nostrums had accidentally been employed, and had not proved 
very prejudicial, it would unquestionably have received high praise for its 
efficacy. It is of the utmost importance to discriminate between a recov¬ 
ery by virtue of a medicine, and in spite of it. 

To keep animals in health, is more important than to cure sick ones, and 
for this purpose a few leading rules should be always observed, and which 
cannot be out of place here. 

1. Always feed regularly, as to time and quantity. Many animals are 
made sick by starving at one time, and stuffing at another. Especially, 
never overfeed. 

2. The same rule must be observed with watering—let the water be pure. 

3. Never overwork an animal—regular and moderate exercise will enable 
a working animal to do more the year through, by all odds, than any hur¬ 
ried driving at one time and resting and overfeeding at another; and be 
infinitely less liable to disease. 

4. Allow a regular supply of salt—it is useful, but an observance of the 
preceding rules without salt, will be incomparably better than their infrac¬ 
tion with it. 

5. Never feed musty or bad food. If musty fodder must be used, pass 
it through a rapid cutter, and moisten, salt and meal it. 

6. Avoid unwholesome or poisonous plants in pastures and in hay. 

7. Guard all animals against cold rain and snow falling on them, and 
against lying on cold wet ground. 

8. All changes of food must be gradual. If from hay to grass, let the 
grazing be but an hour the first day, two hours the next, three the next, etc. 
The same caution must be carefully observed in beginning to feed with 
roots, grain, etc. 

9. Be careful that animals always have enough of exercise—and plenty 
of pure, fresh air. Stables must be well ventilated—animals often become 
sick from breathing foul air. 

10. Lastly, and by no means least, let strict cleanliness be observed. 
All animals, even pigs, kept clean and curried, are found to maintain their 
flesh better, or fatten faster, than when dirty and neglected—and cleanli¬ 
ness is more important to health than for flesh. 

We do not propose to go into a long discourse on diseases and their 
remedies, but there are a few of the more common diseases and some sim¬ 
ple remedies for them, a knowledge of which may be useful for the inex¬ 
perienced. 

HORSES.— Colic and inflammation of the bowels, are two very 
common diseases, often confounded together. With colic the pulse is 
natural, not fifty a minute, the animal often rolls, the disease intermits, and 


10 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


there is usually not much fever. With inflammation there is much fever, 
the pulse sometimes rising to nearly a hundred a minute, the attack is 
gradual, and the disease does not intermit. 

The remedies proposed are of the simplest character, and not those often 
used by professional men. 

For colic. —If from badly digested food, give a pint or more of a solu¬ 
tion of salaratus; or a mixture of half a pound or upwards of fresh pow¬ 
dered charcoal with thrice its bulk of water, is still safer. Spasmodic colic 
may be treated w r ith the charcoal internally, and brisk friction externally, 
and a quart of peppermint tea with a spoonful of powdered cinnamon may 
be given. Ginger tea is also useful. 

For inflammation of the bowels. —This is a difficult disease to cure 
and horses generally are killed by the amount of irritating medicines 
administered, which only add to the disease, such as whisky, gin and 
molasses, salts, castor oil, gunpowder, etc., etc. Give a drink of slippery- 
elm every hour, to allay irritation—keep the animal quiet—let him have 
but little food, and let that be weak gruel. Avoid bleeding. 

Scours or diarrhoea. —Sometimes this arises from irritating matter, in 
which case it must not be checked too soon. When it proceeds from 
exposure after over-exertion, let all the drink the animal takes be slippery- 
elm water, with occasional doses of a spoonful of charcoal. The food 
should be dry. Raspberry leaf tea is a good drink, after the symptoms 
begin to subside. In severe cases, twenty or thirty grains of kino may be 
given in a quart of thin flour gruel, twice a day. 

Cold or catarrh.— This is a common and well-known disease. Medi¬ 
cines generally are of little use except to allay attending symptoms. Good 
nursing and careful management are best, avoiding any exciting cause cal¬ 
culated to increase the disease, or retard the gradual cure that nature com¬ 
monly effects. If followed or accompanied by a hard cough, green food 
should be given—if in winter, turnips or ruta bagas with warm wet meal 
are useful. A moderate feeding of fresh apples two or three times a day 
operates as an expectorant, and relieves the cough. 

Heaves. —When a horse is fed on musty hay, and his cough begins to 
assume symptoms of heaves, immediately procure good hay, if possible, or 
else cut the hay fine and always feed it wet, to which add a spoonful of 
ginger daily until the symptoms disappear. A horse which has the heaves 
once established, cannot be cured, but the disease may be kept so latent 
as to be of no inconvenience, by always feeding wet chopped food. 

Scratches. —(A cutaneous and troublesome disease just above the 
hoof.) Keep the affected parts clean, by washing with soap and water, 
and then apply a solution of chloride of lime. 


HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 


It 


Distemper or horse ail— (attended with thickened discharges from 
the nose, and sore throat, often a tumor under the jaws, and weakness.) 
Rub and curry often to promote warmth and circulation, keep warm and 
comfortable, and if the animal refuses to eat, withhold all drink, but place 
before him warm mashes which he will swallow, when he finds his water is 
not given. He will often eat wet hay, slightly salted, if given him morsel 
after morsel by the.hand. Scraped carrots are excellent. The principal 
object is to keep up his strength and flesh, until the disease runs its course. 
A seton is often advisable, diverting the disease. 

CATTLE.—If the ten rules already given are carefully observed, cattle 
will scarcely ever become diseased; and if they do, immediately examine 
to see if some of these rules are not broken. The following remedies may 
be applied, in case of a few of the more common diseases. 

Horn ail.— The symptoms are dullness, failure of appetite, giddiness, 
failure of flesh, the horn generally feels cold. The head and not the horn 
merely is diseased. Boring generally is of no use, and can only give tem¬ 
porary relief where there is a pressure of matter in the horns. Hornless 
cows have it sometimes. It generally occurs to animals in low condition, 
with deranged digestive organs. The best remedies are to keep them in a 
warm shelter, and to give warm, nourishing, and stimulating food. If the 
animal should happen to be in high condition, feed lightly. Most of 
the remedies have their reputation because they do not prevent natural 
recovery. 

Garget or caking of the bag. —Let the calf suck, after having drawn 
off a part of the milk; and if there is danger of matter forming, rub the 
udder with a liniment of equal parts of goose oil and hot drops. If pain¬ 
ful, wash with weak lye. It is very important always afterwards to milk 
very clean. Avoid high or stimulating food. 

Hoven— occasioned by eating too much fresh clover or other green 
food. The preventive is caution in turning into fresh pastures, allowing 
but a short time at first. In mild cases, a cure may be effected by a quart 
of saleratus water; in severe and threatening ones, a penknife must be 
thrust into the paunch through the skin, two or three inches forward of the 
hip bone. 

Foul in the foot— caused by standing long in filth—may be cured by 
removing to a dry clean place, washing with soap, then with chloride ot 
lime, and applying curriers’ oil. Washing with salt and water is useful. 

Lice.—W ash the skin, night and morning, with a decoction of 2 ounces 
of lobelia seeds in 1 quart of boiling water; after standing 2 hours, apply 
with a sponge. 

Sore teats. —Always wash with water before milking, or after calf-suck- 


12 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


ing—this is often sufficient. If much sore, apply equal parts of lime-water 
and linseed oil. 

Choked cattle —may be relieved, when the obstruction is high, by 
thrusting the arm at full length down and seizing it with the fingers. To 
prevent the animal biting dangerously, pass the arm through a wheel-box 
or clevis, held firmly in the mouth; or still better, through a wooden box 
made on purpose, with projecting ends to hold by. If far down, the 
obstruction may be pushed down with a flexible stick with a round soft 
knob. 

To prevent a cow sucking herself. —Thrust a hickory stick, 8 inches 
long, and half an inch in diameter, through a slit made in the nose, so 
that the stick may project each way horizontally. If the stick is a little 
smaller at the center, it will not come out. 

Colic. —Inflammation of the bowels and diarrhoea require nearly the 
same treatment as with horses. 

SHEEP— Scours. —Give 4 ounces raw linseed oil mixed with two ounces 
of lime-water, when the disease first appears, and give half a gill of ginger 
tea every four hours, and mix ginger with the food. Feed on gruel or 
mashes of meal. A drink of slipperry-elm is valuable. When approach¬ 
ing dysentery, give a teaspoonful of charcoal additionally. 

Stretches or constipation. —Give fresh air and exercise, and scalded 
shorts. Chopped roots are excellent. 

For loss of appetite. —Give camomile tea. 

To destroy ticks. — Drop on a tincture of lobelia seeds, a few drops 
only. 

Foot rot. —Mix about one part of sulphur with twenty parts of salt, or 
thereabouts, and feed the sheep regularly with it the season through. In flocks 
of 2,000 sheep, badly infected, it reduced the disease to one-thirtieth in a 
single year, and afterwards entirely eradicated it. Flour sulphur may be 
bought very cheaply at wholesale in any city. 

Rot.— Give 2 ounces powdered charcoal and 1 ounce of ginger, mixed 
in a pound of oatmeal. 

Staggers. —If too poorly fed, feed higher; if too high, reduce. Dr. 
Dadd’s remedy is to give half a teaspoonful daily, mixed in food, of slip- 
pery-elm powder 4 parts, powdered snake-root 2 parts, and 1 part of fennel 
seed. 

As a general medicine, for all diseases affecting the digestive functions, a 
mixture of charcoal and salt is recommended. 

SWINE— Fits. —Give a clean, airy pen—feed carefully and moderately , 
with a little horse-radish in the food, and give plentifully of valerian tea. 


HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 




Measles. —Usually known by its eruptions, with dullness or drowsiness. 
Remove to a warm and separate place, keep on thin gruel, give a teaspoon¬ 
ful of sulphur daily, and a drink of bittersweet tea. 

Vermin. —Mix sulphur and powdered charcoal with the food, and wash 
the skin in wood-ash lye, and then in a decoction of tobacco. 

Diarrhoea. —Apply the same remedy as for sheep. 

ANIMALS— Tethering and securing. —All who are familiar with ani¬ 
mals well know that the practice of jumping fences is an acquired habit, al¬ 
though in a few cases it may be hereditary. But this is a matter of small 
consequence. We know that animals do leap fences, and how to prevent 
it is the question. 

First we give an engraving of an improved form of clog or tether (fig. 
3) and the same is made by connecting, w r ith a chain or rope one foot in 
length, two round pieces of wood, each twelve inches in length and half 
the size in diameter. 

The center of the chain or rope is connected with the leg by a short 


chain, and a strap encircles the fetlock. The object of 
this arrangement is to be .able to turn horses in a large 
pasture at noon, or at any time, and prevent them from 
walking about, or far from the point at which it is desired 
they should remain. 



Another arrangement, necessitating slow walking, is the use of knee-hop- 


ples as shown in figures 4 and 5. 

A leather strap (a harness hame 

strap will answer) encircles each 

leg above the knee joint, and Fig. 5. 

these are connected by a chain from three to five inches in 

length. This plan does not strain the animal; is cheap, 

easily attached, and effective. 




Fig. 4. 


Another cheap and effective pair of iron hopples, is made in the form of 
the annexed fig. 5. The effective pair of iron hopples is made in the form 


shown in fig. 6. The part or band encircling the fet¬ 
lock is of the usual form ; one end is closed, and re¬ 
tains an iron ring about an inch in diameter; the 
other is left open about one-quarter of an inch, into 



Fig. 6. Iron Hopples, which, when the band encircles the fetlock, is hooked 
the ring R, the thin and peculiar shape at R allowing it to be readily 
attached. The ring being long, with inserting part at the side, keeps it 
from unhooking while in use. The entire length of chain should be about 
two feet six inches. A blacksmith will charge from $1.50 to $2 for making 
them. 



14 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


a Single pendent poke. —A poke of this form is simple in con¬ 
struction, easily made, and explained in fig. 7. When made light 
and of suitable length, it can be placed upon colts one year old, 
or over, with good results, and without the usual straining effects 
caused by the use of fetters. It is secured about the neck by an 
iron bolt C, with nut attached; or with a strap, or by a wooden 
pin made like a bolt, with leather or iron key. A horse-shoe nail 
Sin S Pend * s a &°°d k e y> an d is easily bent by hand. A pin of wood or iron is 
Poke, driven in near the bottom, and projects outward about three inches- 
This catches into the fence when the colt attempts to leap over. In the 
pendent, and two inches below the bolt C , and at right angles thereto, is 
inserted a wooden pin, B , of an inch in diameter, and projecting 3 
inches, into the end of which a nail is partly driven, and then filed sharp. 
When the poke is pressed hard against the fence the nail enters the breast, 
and another attempt is not made very soon. When the animal stands in 
an upright position the bottom of the poke should not come nearer than 12 
inches from the ground. 

Double pendent poke. —We give in the following engravings, two forms 
of the double pendent poke, that with both pendents parallel is only an 
extension of the short arm of the bow of the single pendent, and may be 
made in the same manner with catch pins, etc. The great advantage is that 
the weight is distributed more evenly upon the neck, and offers more impedi¬ 
ment to the jumper than the former. The dotted lines D. D., show another 
form of arrangement. It may be bent inward at the point of bolt fastening, 
then diverging outward, or diverging only below the 
bolt as desired. This plan offers more conven¬ 
ience to the animal while walking or feeding, and 
is not liable to injure the knees when moving rap¬ 
idly. If made from a round stick, unless of quite 
uniform diameter, the large end should be reduced 
in size. 

Flexible projection poke.— As regards cheap- 
ness, this poke (fig. 9) compares favorably with either of the ble Projec- 
two just described, and for effectiveness we think that in many tlon * 
respects it is preferable. 

In most sections of the country farmers have old ox-bows, or can obtain 
them of a neighbor at slight expense, and they will be found just the thing 
for this purpose, with the exception, perhaps, of the ends in some cases being 
too far apart, which is remedied by tying firmly together and immersing it for 
half an hour in a tub or boiler of hot water, and then allowing it to dry for 
a day. After removing the fastening, the ends should touch, or at least be 



Fig. 8. Double 
Pendent Poke 







HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 


15 


within an inch or two; and in use is readily sprung over the horse’s neck. 
An iron bolt passes through the upper end of projection O, and through 
the bow within five inches of the end. About four inches below, the bolt 
is firmly driven an iron rod, A 7 , one-half inch in diameter and seven inches 
in length, the ends of which set against the bow, keeping the projection at 
an angle of about 45 °. This poke is readily attached, and the bow 
will not be lost if the remainder is. We have known extremely tricky ani¬ 
mals, by a side movement, to throw the end of the projection over the 
fence, and then leap over with apparent ease, but such cases are as rare 
as they are provoking. 

Bending bows, etc. —To obtain a desirable, uniform curve in bending 
bows, a machine or form should be used, and 
a simple arrangement for the purpose is 
shown in fig. 10. The ends B are made from 
plank fifteen to eighteen inches wide, shaped 
in the form of an arch, with projections at 
each side 7 inches long and 4 wide, through 
which are made holes, 1 inch in diameter, in 
which loosely fit the retaining bars of wood 



Fig. 10. 

Machine for Bending Bows. 



A A . Over the arched partition are nailed strips of boards 12 inches in 
length, 2 inches wide and one inch thick, and 2 inches apart. 

In fig. 11 is shown an end view of bending machine, with stick E in pro¬ 
cess of bending. It is frequently desirable * to bend dry and 
seasoned wood. In this case cut it into the desired shape, and 
either steam for a few hours, or immerse in water for a day or 
two, until thoroughly soaked, when no difficulty should be expe¬ 
rienced in bending. If you form the bow too small, the animal 
wearing it is inconvenienced, if not distressed thereby; if on 
the other hand too large, you have your remedy by winding 

r with strips of flannel cloth, firmly tied in place. Always, and 
End View 01 r . ,j. , , . , . 

Bending Ma- in every case, bend with the cut side inward, which in a meas- 

i? in aB?w ld " ure P revents splintering. It is not necessarily required that 
any particular kind of wood should be used—any tough, firm, easily bent 
wood will answer. If a round stick be used, remove the bark and all pro¬ 
jecting knots, and make as smooth as possible, rendering it more conveni¬ 
ent to handle, not so liable to wear the hair and mane, or cause irritation. 
It also seasons more rapidly, and is not so frequently worm-eaten. 

Universal fetters. —The illustration shown in connection with this 
article, represents a style of fetters (fig. 12) that every farmer will find 
to be of great practical utility. They are made of differ¬ 
ent sizes, to fit the size and kind of animal to be hoppled. 

Fig. 12, Fetters for when on the farm, we found this kind of fetters of excel- 
a Kicking Cow. 








i6 


brand’s cyclopedja. 


lent service; and those who are in doubt about the utility of employing 
them for sheep or neat cattle, may rest assured that they are valuable, and 
worthy of general introduction. 

When we kept a bull, his fore legs were usually fettered when he was 
turned into the field. The chief object of the fetters was to prevent coup¬ 
ling w r ith any cows, or heifers, which we desired to keep from the male. 
When the services of the animal were required, the fetters were removed 
from one, or both legs. 

It will be perceived, that if a bull’s fore legs be connected with a chain 
one foot long, it is utterly impossible for the cow to receive him. And the 
same is true of rams. If their fore legs be connected with fetters, so as to 
allow them six or eight inches play, rams and ewes may run together always* 
and no lambs will be dropped at an untimely season of the year. When a 
farmer has but one ram, by putting fetters on his fore legs, he will find it 
much more convenient, and better for the ram also, to allow him to run 
with the flock, than to be confined alone in a small enclosure. 

There should be a swivel in the chain to prevent twisting into kinks, as 
the animal will sometimes throw his feet over the chain as he walks. The 
pieces of leather that buckle around the fore legs should be strong and 
broad; and the buckles, two or three on each piece, should be secured to 
separate pieces of leather sewed firmly to the outside of the large pieces 
of leather. The end links of the chain should be made like a cock-eye for 
traces of harness. 

ANIMALS— Draft, training.— This cannot be commenced too early, 
at first by acts of kindness, by which they become tractable and confident, 
and all feeling of fear is dispelled. 

Colts and steers should be halter broken and yoked the first winter, and 
constantly handled, and this practice should never be discontinued. They 
must not, however, be worked hard while young, for many obvious reasons, 
but it is important that the training be done thoroughly, in which the art of 
backing is too much lost sight of. A well trained, orderly pair of cattle or 
horses, will always command nearly double the price of ordinary animals. 

ANIMALS— Chaff in eyes. —Cattle that eat straw from a stack, or 
thrust their heads into large piles of straw, sometimes get barley beards or 
oat chaff into their eyes, inflaming and shutting the eye, causing the flow of 
water from it, and sometimes producing blindness. S. E. Todd states, in 
the Ohio Farmer, that after trying for a cow partly blinded with oat chaff, the 
various remedies generally prescribed, including powdered burnt alum 
blown into the eye, the use of honey, etc., to no purpose, he found the best 
remedy, and one entirely effectual, was to take a silk pocket handkerchief, 
draw it tightly over the end of the finger, and after having raised the lid as 


HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 


17 


much as practicable, thrust the covered finger into the eye. The chaff adhered 
to it, and was at once brought out. He has always succeeded with this 
remedy. If the finger is not large, it may be passed all around the ball. 
The animal, if not gentle, will require tying. 

ANIMALS— Flies, repelling from. —A writer in an agricultural paper 
pours two pails (24 quarts) of boiling water on five pounds each of walnut 
and tobacco leaves (refuse tobacco,) and washes his horses, oxen and 
cows with this decoction—when dry, he rubs his horses down with walnut 
leaves. He affirms this will repel flies for two weeks (if not washed off by 
rains, we suppose.) A decoction of wormwood is said to have the same 
effect—and probably many other plants would be equally efficacious. 

ANIMALS— Warts on.— A correspondent of the Germantown Tele¬ 
graph says that bathing the wart two or three times a week with turpentine 
and sweet oil mixed, will certainly effect a cure. 

Animals in winter. —Farmers do not sufficiently sub-divide their yards 
in winter. Large and small animals are turned in promiscuously together, 
and as every farmer knows, the larger ones are very ferocious and domi¬ 
neering towards those much inferior, but careful not to provoke the wrath 
of such as are nearly equal. Turn those together which are of similar size, 
and they will be more quiet all round. Calves generally are too much 
neglected, and come out small and puny in spring. A good manager has 
constructed a spacious stable for calves in one of his sheds, moderately 
lighted, and well sheltered from all currents of wind. This apartment is 
kept clean, the calves fed on good hay, and supplied with good water. 
They present a very different appearance from other calves in spring. 

CATTLE, age of—how to tell.— {By the teeth.) The calf is usually 
born with two fore or cutting teeth, and in one month the entire eight are 
out. The age is then guessed by the wearing down of these teeth until 
the calf is eight months old, when they begin to grow narrower and smaller. 
At eight months the two centre teeth have become smaller than the rest; 
and from that time until eighteen months old the others gradually diminish, 
until they are all considerably lessened in size and stand apart from each 
other. At two years old the two middle teeth are pushed out, and succeeded 
by two permanent ones; at three there are four permanent teeth; six at four 
years, and all the rest at five, when the animal is said to be full-mouthed* 
but he is not actually so until six years old, when all the eight are level. 

A competent judge of cattle will generally determine the age with con¬ 
siderable accuracy for many years after that. From six to nine he will be 
guided by the wearing down of the teeth, and after that by the diminution 
in their bulk, as in the milk teeth. At nine the two middle fore teeth are 
smaller and narrower than the rest; at ten the next two are so; and so on 

I 


i8 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


until twelve, when, as in the steer of two years old, the teeth again begin to 
stand apart from each other. 

(By the horns .) The surface of the horn continues nearly smooth until 
the expiration of the second year, when a wrinkle or circle of thicker horn 
begins to be formed around the base. This is fully completed in twelve 
months, and another ring then begins to appear, so that if the perfect rings 
or circles are counted, and two added to them, the age of the beast is sup¬ 
posed to be ascertained. These rings, however, are not clear and distinct, 
and it is very easy to remove one or two of them with a rasp, and deceive at 
least to the unpracticed eye, when the animal begins to be unmarketably old. 
In addition to this a well known fact should be stated, that if a heifer takes 
the bull at two years old, the first ring is formed a twelvemonth before its 
usual time, and, consequently, she would always appear to be, reckoning by 
her horns, a twelvemonth older than she really is. 

After all, the age, as denoted by the horn, can only be calculated in the 
cow; these things do not appear in the ox or bull until the animal is five 
years old, and then they are generally too confused to be accurately counted. 

CATTLE— Hooking. —Saw off with a fine sharp saw an inch or two of 
their horns. This is as good as brass rubles. 

CATTLE —Feeding pumpkin seed to. —It is asserted by some good 
farmers, that pumpkin seed have a certain specific effect on cows, causing 
them to dry up their milk; and when the seeds are taken out before feed¬ 
ing, it will be found they yield a larger quantity. 

CATTLE— Probang for choked.— The safest mode of removing pota¬ 
toes or other obstructions in the throat of cattle, is with the hand, and this 
is particularly applicable to cases where the obstruction is in the upper part of 
the throat. When further down, a probang must be used. The great point is 
to have one with a concave end, so as to hold the potato in the middle of 
the throat. We have known a rounded or flat end of the piston to work itself 
between the potato and the side of the throat, and kill the animal. The 
following are suitable dimensions of a probang, made of hickory or tough 
white oak. It is three feet long, and an inch and 

a half thick—the concave £ — ■ — -J at the piston end, and 

the handle at the other Fig< I3> _ Probang forChoked —worked down to 
five-eighths of an inch Cattle. between, so as to be 

flexible. Two men will hold the cow by the horns and nose, while a third 
with the instrument will very carefully and cautiously shove the potato 
down about half a foot, when it is carefully withdrawn. Cattle have been 
relieved and cured in less than a minute. 

When the obstruction is far down in the throat, it may be carefully pushed 
down by a flexible rod, coated on the end by a piece of pork-rind, tied 




HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 


19 



firmly on with a cord, the inner side outwards. When the obstruction is 
higher up in the throat, it may be removed by thrusting the arm down the 
throat and seizing it with the fingers. For this purpose the jaws must be 
;) held firmly wide open, to prevent all danger of bit¬ 
ing. The annexed figure represents a simple in- 
Fig. 14. strument used for this purpose, which may be made 

in a few minutes, and should be always kept on hand by those who are not 
vigilant in excluding whole apples or potatoes from their animals. It con¬ 
sists of a strip of board made of hard wood, a , about two feet long and 
three inches wide, shaved or rounded at the ends so as to form handles. 
Two wooden blocks, c , c , are placed between this board and a similar 
board, h, so as to leave a hole or space just large enough for the hand 
and arm to pass through. These boards should be firmly nailed to 
the blocks. In using it a man stands on each side of the animal, and 
holds the horns, while the mouth is crowded open and the instrument held 
firmly by the handles. A third person, after removing his coat and rolling 
up his sleeves, thrusts his arm nearly full length down the throat and 
removes the obstruction. An active, half-grown boy. whose hand is smaller 
than that of a man’s, usually succeeds best. The whole may be done in 
less than a minute’s time—the writer has often performed this task without 
any inconvenience. 

It is said that pouring into the throat half a pint, more or less, of sweet 
oil, or lamp oil, will so lubricate the obstruction, that rubbing the throat 
briskly outside with the hand will soon remove it—sliding it up or down 
according to its position. In any case oil is a useful auxiliary to other 
means. 

Cattte tie. —The following is a design for a cheap, effective and 
simple cattle tie, which may be new to many readers. It is 
preferable to stanchions, as being more humane; while it is 
always out of the cattles’ way, so that they cannot possibly 
get it fastened anywhere so as to break it. It is easily put 
on and off. 

The leather of which the straps are made should be made 
wet and stretched before using; mine were not done so, and 
have become a little too long, which we correct by simply 
View twisting one after the other has been put on the horn. 

I use them on my oxen, which stand two in the same stall, 
upon a raised platform, just long enough for them to stand on, with a gut¬ 
ter behind them to save manure. 

CATTLE— Racks. —A western farmer who feeds 150 head of cattle, esti¬ 
mates that the construction of good feeding rack saves him at least five 



from above 





20 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


tons of hay yearly—more than enough to pay annually for the racks. 
Judging from the amount of hay we have often seen troddon in the mud, 
or used as litter by the cattle, as many tons would be yearly saved by some 
who have not fifty head. 

CATTLE—To make them thrive in winter. —There are certain requi¬ 
sites to be constantly observed, namely, the following • 

1. To feed regularly , and prevent fretting for expected meals. 

2. To give enough, but never over-feed. 

3. To feed often, and moderately at a time. 

4. To furnish constantly a supply of good water. 

5. To shelter from storms. * 

6. To rub them clean, and give clean litter. 

7. To give them a portion of carrots or beets daily. 

8. To keep their stables properly ventilated and free from bad air. 

CATTLE— Training to jump. —A Western farmer says he makes it a 

rule that whenever cattle are made to pass a fence, whether through bars 
or “ slip-gap,” to leave one rail for them to pass under. This gives them 
a downward tendency, and lessens their inclination to jump or look upwards, 
as they are sure to do when a lazy attendant throws down a part of the 
rails, and makes them vault the rest. Cattle may be learned to go over 
any fence, by the careful training they often get for this end, and performed 
as follows: First starve them, or give them poor food, which will make 
them light and restless. As soon as they go over the lowest part of the 
fence after better provender, make them jump back again, and put on one 
more rail, saying, “I guess that will keep ’em out.” Next day, (as of 
course they will be in mischief again,) repeat the process, adding another 
rail; in a short time they will take care of themselves, and harvest the crops 
without charge. 

CATTLE— Wintering. —Every farmer should reserve his best hay for 
the latter part of winter and spring. Let the animals rather improve 
instead of their falling away as warm weather advances. Let them enter 
the pasture in good condition. It is an old axiom, “ cattle well wintered 
are half summered.” 

CATTLE— Wounds in. —Wounds in cattle are quickly cured by wash¬ 
ing several times a day with a mixture of the yolk of eggs and spirits of 
turpentine. 

CALVING— Time for heifers. —A late English writer considers it a 
matter of great importance, that heifers should be so managed as to have 
their first calf late in spring, when there is an abundance of succulent food, 
inducing a large supply of milk. This is much better than to have them 
come in early in spring, when they have dry food only. The habit at first 


HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 21 

formed is apt to remain with them, and if they commence by giving a good 
supply of milk, they are apt to be good milkers afterwards. 

COWS— Milch, bean meal for. —We have on former occasions alluded 
to some trials that have been made in feeding milch cows with bean meal, 
the results of which seemed to show that it was a highly valuable article. 
At a late meeting of an English Farmers’ Club it was stated by a member, 
that nothing was so good for cows in milk, either as regarded the produce 
of butter or cheese, as bean meal. 

COWS— Feeding Squashes to. —A correspondent of the Country Gen¬ 
tleman found that his cows gave four quarts of milk more per day, with 
the seeds taken out, than when left in—three pecks being daily fed to two 
cows. Another cow fattened more rapidly on three pecks of squashes cut 
into small pieces, than on six quarts of scalded cob-meal. The squashes 
made more milk and butter when the seeds were taken out than carrots ; 
and about the same when the seeds were left in. The variety was the Boston 
Marrow, with some Hubbard, both very rich kinds. The cross was thought 
to be better for the purpose, and to keep longer than the Marrow alone. 

COWS—To winter village. —One hundred bushels of carrots may be 
raised on ten square rods of very rich ground in favorable seasons, and in 
almost any season on sixteen square rods, or four rods square, one-tenth of 
an acre. They will keep a cow all winter in the finest condition, in connec¬ 
tion with some hay, and furnish rich milk and butter. A few square rods of 
sorghum will supply fodder nearly all the autumn, of the richest character, 
but should be cut short in a stalk-cutter. 

COWS— Food for milch. —Cornstalks sown thickly for fodder, har¬ 
vested, well cured, and kept from fermenting, are probably the cheapest 
kind of fodder that can be raised for cattle—unless sorghum raised for this 
purpose should prove by experience to be better. In addition to this, give 
each animal daily a peck to a half-bushel of carrots, or an equal amount of 
sugar beets, the winter through. It does not pay to cook them. A small 
quantity of com or bean meal, or both, in addition to this, will have a good 
effect, but not more than two quarts should be given daily, at the utmost. 

COWS—To CURE kicking. —i. Never allow the slightest degree of 
heat or passion, or departure from perfect self-control. 

2. Never strike the animal but once at a time—no matter what the prov¬ 
ocation may be—a single, sharp cut with a switch (kept under the left arm,) 
excites fear and alarm—two or more strokes create a re-action, and cause 
rage but not fear. 

3. Adhere faithfully to the principles of cause and effect, and the animal 
will quickly understand these principles, if the single, alarming stroke always 
instantaneously follows every attempt to kick. 


22 


brand’s CYCLOPEDIA. 


4. Treat the animal in a firm, soothing, gentle manner at all times—only 
let the blow always come quickly after every kick; whether it be merely an 
abortive attempt , or the whole pail of milk is upset—the intention of the 
animal was the same. 

We do not wonder that so many fine cows are spoiled, that are treated 
according to passion and caprice, and not according to principle nor rule. 
If a cow kicks maliciously, but happens to hit no one, the milker takes no 
notice of it; if a mere accidental movement of the foot oversets a pail of 
milk, a shower of furious blows follows, and it becomes impossible for any 
brute to know from such irregular practice, what connection there is 
between the punishment and the offence. 

COWS— Rules for managing. —Never buy a cow of a dairyman, for if 
he is a good manager he will sell only his poor animals. 

To determine which cows are best for keeping, try their milk separately, 
and weigh the butter—for sometimes a cow may give much milk and little 
butter, and vice versa. 

Cows should run dry six weeks before calving—if milked closely towards 
calving, the calves will be poorer. 

A cow newly come in, should not drink cold water in cold weather, but 
moderately warm slop. Calves intended for raising, should be taken from 
the cow within a few days, and they will be less liable to suck when old. 
Feed them first with new milk for a time—then skim milk—then sour milk— 
taking care that all changes are gradual, by adding only a portion first, and 
add gradually a little meal. 

Calves well fed and taken care of, with a quart or two of meal daily in 
winter, will be double the size at two years they would have attained by 
common treatment. 

Heifers thus treated may come in at two years old, and will be better than 
neglected animals at three, and one year of feeding saved. 

Hearty eaters are desirable for cows, and they may usually be selected 
while calves. A dainty calf will be a dainty cow. 

Heifers should be accustomed to be freely handled before calving, and 
drawing the teats. They will then not be difficult to milk. Begin gradu¬ 
ally, and never startle them. 

In milking cows, divide the time as nearly as practicable between morning 
and evening, especially at time of early grass, that the udder may not suffer. 

Persons who milk should keep the nails cut short—animals are some¬ 
times hurt with sharp nails, and unjustly charged with restlessness. 

Old cows should be fatted at fifteen years. The dairyman, therefore, 
who has fifteen cows, should raise a heifer calf every year to supply the 
vacancy—if the herd is thirty cows, he should raise two calves, and so forth. 


HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 23 

Heifers dried up too early after calving, will always run dry about the 
same time in after years—therefore, be careful to milk closely the first year, 
until about six weeks before calving. 

Spring cows should come in while they are yet fed on hay, and before they 
are turned to grass, which will be more likely to prevent caked bag and 
milk fever. 

COWS— Garget or inflamed udder in. —It is stated on good author¬ 
ity, that whenever this disease is caused by a cold, a few drops of aconite in 
solution, will soon effect a cure. It is dropped into water, and a piece of 
bread then soaked in it, and applied. 

COWS— Stabling. —Different experiments show that stabling milch cows 
during an average of Northern winters, increases their milk about one-third. 
In very severe weather the milk will be doubled; while in mild days less 
advantage results. 

Cows sucking themselves. —The following contrivance, not entirely 
new, is described by A. D. Newell of 
New-Brunswick: “ I took an oak bar¬ 
rel head and cut it in this shape, (fig. 

17,) five inches wide and eight inches 
long; I then sprung or bent her nose 
so as to get a point in each nostril; it 
then hung in front of her mouth. She Flg * 17 * 
can eat anything, but not suck. I have put small ones on calves, so that 
they can run in the fields with their dams, and not be able to suck them.” 

COCK_ Choice of a. —He should be vigorous, broad in the breast, 

clean in the legs, with ample wings, and a well developed tail plumage; his 
eyes should be bright, and the caruncled skin of the neck full, and rapid in 
its changes of color. Though capable of assuming his legitimate rank 
among the hens when a year old, he is not in perfection until he has attained 
his third year and is entering upon his fourth, and he continues in his prime 
for three or four years. Thus for two, three or four years, or longer, may 
all the young cocks be devoted to the spit, one, perhaps, of particular beauty 
being preserved within that space of time for the adornment of the farm-yard. 

FOWLS_ Fattening. —If it is desired to fatten fowls in a very short 

time, they should be confined in small coops. Some writers think it better 
to make half of the floor a little inclined, and cover it with boards. Troughs 
for feed and water should be fastened around the edge of the coop, and 
the whole placed in an out-building, as a bam or shed, away from other 
fowls. For the first twenty-four hours give water, but no food. On the 
second day commence feeding regularly three times daily with the most 
nutritious food, such as oatmeal mixed with milk, boiled wheat, etc., etc. 




24 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


The troughs should be cleaned daily, and plently of fresh clean water 
given and the fowls must be fed very early in the morning, and all they will 
eat at all times. In from fourteen to twenty days they will be in their best 
condition, when they should be killed, for if kept longer they soon become 
diseased. 

Poultry may be fattened quicker and more perfectly by stuffing, but it is 
an unnatural as well as an inhuman way. 

Dorking, Spanish, Game, Hamburgh and Polish chickens hatched the 
last of May, will do well to fatten when three months old, but Shanghai, 
Malay and Java chickens should be at least a month older. 

FOWLS— Hens to make lay in winter. —Provide, 

1. A comfortable roost. 

2. Plenty of sand, gravel and ashes, dry, to play in. 

3. A box of lime. 

4. Boiled meat, chopped fine, every two or three days. 

5. Com and oats, best if boiled tender. 

6. All the crumbs and potato pearings. 

7. Water, not cold, or blood warm. 

This treatment has proved quite successful, and hens which, without it, 
gave no eggs, with it immediately laid one each on an average, every 
two days. 

HENS—To prevent eating eggs. —S. E. Todd succeeds well by the 
following mode:—Empty nail kegs (large enough to hold 100 lbs. of nails) 
are sawed in two, and each half makes a hen’s nest. The heads are 
knocked out, and a piece of cloth nailed on for a bottom. These are nailed 
about 4 feet above the floor. Hens on these nests are hid from below, and 
will not be molested or robbed; and they cannot reach their own eggs while 
standing on the edge—and while on the nest there is not room to get 
at them. 

HENS— Nest-eggs. —Nest-eggs are frequently made as follows: Take 
an egg and break a small hole in the round end of it, and remove the con¬ 
tents ; next fill up the shell with plaster of Paris, wet' up with water to such 
a consistency as to admit of its being poured.into the shell; after it “ sets,” 
paste a piece of white paper smoothly over the hole. If this is not done 
the hens peck at the end of the egg and soon destroy it. This kind of 
nest-egg is cheap and easily made, and they will last a long time. 

Porcelain eggs are sometimes hard to find just when you want them, and 
besides, they are often made so thin as to be easily broken, which is the 
great objection to their use. 

HOGS— Fattening in warm and cold weather. —A correspondent of 
the Ohio Farmer , writing from Duncan’s Falls, gives an account of an 


HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 25 

experiment made with one hundred hogs, averaging two hundred pounds 
each, and placed in nine large covered pens, with plank floors and troughs. 
They were fed as follows : 

“ The corn was ground up cob and all, in one of the “Little Giant” 
steam mills; steamed and fed at 6 and 9 a. m., 12 M., 3 and 6 p. m., or five 
times a day, all they could eat, and in exactly one week they were weighed 
again, the corn they had eaten having been weighed also, and calling 70 
lbs. a bushel, and pork as before (four cents gross,) it was equal to eighty 
cents per bushel for corn. The weather was quite warm here for the sea¬ 
son of the year. The first week in November I tried the same experiment 
on the same lot of hogs, and the corn only brought sixty-two cents per 
bushel, the weather being colder. The third week, same month, with same 
lot of hogs, corn brought forty cents, and the weather still getting colder. 
The fourth week, same as above, corn brought twenty-six cents: weather 
still colder.” 

This lot of hogs were sold off the last of November, and another lot of 
hogs put up, which had been fed in the field on com in the cob. 

“ This lot was weighed and fed as above, the five weeks of December, 
and the corn fed averaged twenty-six cents a bushel, the weather being about 
the same as the last. This lot was tried again in the middle of January, 
the com fed for that week averaging only five cents per bushel; at that time 
the thermometer stood at zero. This same lot was tried again and just 
held their own, the thermometer being below zero, sometimes as low as ten 
degrees.” 

From these facts the writer comes to the sound conclusion that “ it will 
not pay, as a general thing, to feed com to hogs after the middle of 
November,” unless the price is very low. It will not pay to find fuel in the 
shape of corn, to keep hogs or other stock warm in winter. We should 
either fatten early, or provide comfortable shelter and accommodations for 
our swine, etc. 

HOGS— board floors for. —A well known hog raiser says: “ Having 
had much experience in rearing and fattening swine, I can state confidently 
that hogs will thrive on a board floor, if properly taken care of. Their 
feet do sometimes become distorted, but seldom so much so as to interfere 
with their thrift. Such floors are preferably made of laths or rails laid at 
such a distance apart as to allow the urine to pass freely through. I know 
of no mode in which hogs can be kept so clean and comfortable as on 
such a floor in the summer season; in winter a tight floor is necessary for 
young pigs.” 

HOGS— parsnips for. —Parsnips appear to be nearly the only root 
good for swine in an uncooked state. Turn a herd of swine into a field 


26 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


containing field beets, ruta bagas, carrots, and parsnips, and the questiont 
will very soon be settled which they like best, and which, consequently, is 
best for them—the parsnips being wholely devoured before the others are 
touched. 

The form of a good pig. —The aim of all breeders of animals designed 
solely for meat, is to have the body approximate as closely as possible to 
the form of a parallelopiped. In proportion to the size, an animal of this 
form contains the greatest weight. Hence it is, that farmers who have 
kept nothing but common pigs, and who look upon a well-formed, grade 
Essex or Suffolk as “ small,” are surprised to find, when brought to the 
scales, that it weighs more than an old-fashioned, ill-formed pig of much 
greater apparent size. 

Another advantage of this form is, that it gives a greater proportion of 
the most desirable parts of the pig. 

In a pig of this form the ribs are well-arched. We cannot have a flat, 
broad, “ table-back ” without this. And consequently the muscle which 
runs along each side of the vertebrae, is well developed, and we have a 
large quantity of meat of the best quality. 

PIG—How to select. —This form also affords abundant room for the 
lungs, stomach, and intestines; and it is on the capacity of these organs to 
convert a large amount of comparatively cheap food into a large quantity 
of flesh and fat that determines the value of the animal. 

We annex a portrait of a tolerably well-formed pig, with lines showing 
how to apply the test above alluded to. The 
nearer he will fill the rectangular frame, the 
nearer he approaches to perfection of form 
It would be well for farmers to place a straight 
cane along the back, also along the sides 
shoulders and hams of their pigs, and see how 
Fig. 18—Testing the form of a pig. near they come up to the desired standard. 

The length of a pig should bear a certain proportion to his breadth. 
Many farmers object to the improved breeds because they are too short. 
In point of fact, however, they are often longer than their ill-bred favor¬ 
ites. They appear short, because they are so broad. A large-boned hog 
is longer than one having small bones. There are as many vertebrae in 
the shortest Suffolk as in the longest Yorkshire. 

A fine-boned pig cannot be long-bodied. It may appear long, but this 
will usually be because it is narrow. Breadth and depth are of far greater 
importance than length. 

In a common sow, to be crossed with a thorough-bred boar, length of 
body is often very desirable ; but in a thorough-bred pig it is a doubtful 
quality, as indicating a want of breadth and fineness of bone. 









HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 


2 / 


The head of a pig should be set close to the shoulders. The broader 
and deeper the cheeks the better, as next to the ham and shoulder there is 
no choicer meat on the pig. A well-cooked cheek of bacon, with roast 
chicken, is a dish for an epicure. 

The snout should be short and delicate, and the ears small and fine. A 
thick, heavy, pendant ear is an indication of coarseness, and is never 
desirable in a thorough-bred pig. It should be small, fine, soft and silky. 
It should be well set on the head, and lean a little forward, but not fall 
over. An ear that is upright indicates an unquiet disposition. 

SOWS— With young pigs.—treatment of.— A correspondent of the 
Maine Farmer, who has had thirtv years successful experience in raising 
pigs, says: 

The hog goes with young sixteen weeks. They seldom vary twenty-four 
hours from that time. The feed should be gradually increased as much as 
eight weeks before they bring forth. For two days after-, she should have 
no food except a little thin warm gruel, not to exceed half a pint a day of 
meal. She should have all the warm water she will take, which will some¬ 
times be two pailfuls in a day. This is very essential, as it helps the flow 
of milk and prevents fever. You may now gradually increase the food till 
the pigs are two weeks old, when she should be full fed. If you have no 
better feed, good Indian meal, mixed with milk, will do very well, if you 
give enough and feed regularly. The pigs should be taught to eat with 
their mother as young as two weeks, which may be done by having a broad 
shallow trough, and gently putting them into it when the mother is eating. 

SWINE— Fed on skim-milk. —The Country Gentleman published, a few 
years since, a statement of the successful feeding and fattening of swine on 
skim-milk, as practiced by Joseph Greene, of Macedon, N. Y., a mode, 
however, not entirely new. He fed spring pigs through the summer, and 
when six or seven months old, they usually averaged about 300 pounds 
each. Three, at seven months, weighed in one instance, after being dressed, 
no less than 956 pounds in the aggregate. Another animal, at six months 
and ten days, weighed when dressed 298 pounds. He ascribes his success 
to feeding undiluted milk, or in its most concentrated state, without any 
water thrown in. This made them grow rapidly, with solid square bodies, 
and not like the flabby animals produced when much liquid and little nour¬ 
ishment are given. The fattening was completed on the ground meal of 
old com. They did not thrive well on new com, and failed on “nubbins.” 

Several others have adopted a similar mode of treatment, with like suc¬ 
cess. One instance that has recently come to hand, is the following, 
reported in a late number of the Union Springs Herald : 

“ David Anthony killed, on Saturday last, a litter of eight spring pigs, 


28 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


I 


about eight and a half months old, the total weight of which were 2,350 
pounds—an average of 293 pounds each—the slightest one weighing 280, 
and the heaviest 320 pounds. We call that hard to beat. If any one can 
do it, send on the figures.” 

On inquiring personally of David Anthony as to the mode of feeding 
adopted, he informs us that these animals are chiefly indebted for their 
rapid growth to the skim-milk that he gave them, of which he had a plen¬ 
tiful supply. He finished feeding them on fifteen bushels of ground Canada 
corn, which was all the grain he gave them. He intends to plant a few 
acres of the Canada com, for fattening his swine another year, as it is fully 
ripe before the first day of autumn, and it is therefore found to be nearly 
equal to old corn for fall feeding. 

COLTS—To prevent gnawing reins. —Wash the reins in alcohol, in 
which aloes and assafcetida have been dissolved. One trial will usually 
effect a cure. The same result has been produced where a few seeds of red 
pepper have been thrust into small incisions in leather, left purposely with¬ 
in their reach. 

HORSES— Drawing on the halter. —Various contrivances have been 
made to prevent horses from pulling at the post; some of these contriv¬ 
ances, by producing pain and subsequent soreness on the top of the head, 
effect parmanent injury to the animal. A better plan is to use the follow¬ 
ing (figure 19) which by pinching the jaw, and pressing the mouth closely 
together, is very apt to compel the animal instantly to 
desist. Instead of connecting the two side rings of a 
common halter by a third strap to which the long strap 
is fastened, let these side rings be connected by a 
strong, flexible cord, as shown in the engraving, and 
fasten the hitching-strap to the outer part. Whenever 
the horse pulls at his halter the inner part of the cord 
is drawn forcibly against his jaw, and the powerful 
tourniquet movement is rather more severe than the 
animal is -willing voluntarily to endure. A strap is 
sometimes used instead of a cord, but it is less decisive 
and efficient. 

HORSES— Balky. —They refuse to move forward, with a dogged obsti¬ 
nacy, and seem to say, “ I would rather go backward—I shan’t stir forward 
a step.” Take them at their word; hitch a team to the back end of the 
wagon, and start up in the opposite direction, drawing the balky animal in 
the way of his choice. He will soon regard it as a poor joke, and prefer 
going ahead in the natural way. 

HORSES— Cutting feed for. —An accurate farmer has furnished the 



HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 


2 9 


Country Gentleman a statement of his experiments with feeding cut feed 
and meal to his horses, accompanied with weighing and measuring. He 
cuts oat straw about an inch long, with a rawhide cylinder machine, and 
this chopped straw is then treated with corn meal and bran, mixed in about 
equal quantities as to weight, so that each horse has about a bushel of 
cut feed, and three quarts of the meal and bran, twice each day. Some¬ 
times hay is cut instead of oat straw, or both are mixed. It is found that 
two hundred pounds per week of this mixture of com meal and .bran, 
added to the cut feed, will keep a pair of working horses in the best con¬ 
dition. This he is satisfied from experiment is less than two-thirds the cost 
of keeping them on uncut dry hay and ivhole grain. The corn meal alone 
is not so good for horses, as when diluted with bran. An excellent meal 
is made of ground oats. The fodder is cut by horse power on stormy 
or spare days, and stored in large bins, so as to furnish always a surplus 
on hand. 

HORSES— Bruising oats for. —The fact that oats are frequently undi¬ 
gested, and pass through the horse without change, should be sufficient to 
show the importance of bruising—for certainly no benefit can be derived 
from that which is undigested by the animal. Experiments made by the 
London Omnibus Company and others, show that a smaller quantity is 
required to produce the same ability to work, when the oats are bruised, 
than when fed whole. 

HORSES—How to learn to canter. —To teach them a slow and easy 
canter, under the saddle, ride them long distances up hill. 

HORSES— Breaking halters. — It is a serious fault for a horse to pull 
at his halter. An animal of this character was tied to a stake on the bank 
of a stream, with his tail towards the water. He snapped the halter, tum¬ 
bled over the bank, floundered in the water to his heart’s content, and 
afterwards was willing to remain “ at his post.” 

HORSES— Heaves in. —Well cured com stalks, cut before frost, are the 
best fodder for horses that have the heaves. Cases taken in time, have 
been ultimately cured by constantly feeding on them. Hay, cut fine, and 
wet before feeding, will greatly alleviate all symptoms of heaves; and even 
in old and incurable cases, the disease will be often suspended while horses 
are thus fed. 

HORSES—Over-reaching.— A writer in an agricultural paper, who is 
a blacksmith, cures over-reaching horses, and increases their trotting speed 
fifteen or twenty seconds per mile, by the following mode of shoeing, 
which increases the motion of the forward feet, and retards the motion of 
the hind ones. He makes the toe-caulks very low, standing a little under, 
and the shoes set as far backward as convenient, on the forward feet, with 


30 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


high heel-caulks, so as. to let them rollover as soon as possible. On the 
hind feet, the heel-caulk is' low and the toe-caulk high and projecting for¬ 
ward. Horses shod thus, travel clean, and no click. 

HORSES— Shying. —L. A. D., in the Scientific American, says that a 
horseman should never “ shy” himself when the horse shies, nor show the' 
least nervousness, nor notice it in the horse, and far less punish him for it, 
and adds: Allow me, having had a great deal of experience in managing 
horses, to add another bit of advice to nervous horsemen. Whenever 
they notice their horse directing his ears to any point whatever, or indicat¬ 
ing the slightest disposition to become afraid, let them, instead of pulling the 
rein to bring the horse towards the object causing its nervousness, pull it 
on the other side. This will instantly divert the attention of the horse 
from the object exciting his suspicion, and in ninety-nine cases out of a 
hundred the horse will pay no more attention to the object, from which he 
will fly away if forcibly driven to it by pulling the wrong rein. 

LAMBS— Fattening. —A correspondent of the Maine Farmer , says 
that lambs will soon learn to eat oats, if left before them, at about three 
weeks of age; and that it will cause them to grow and fatten rapidly, more 
so than by any feeding to the dams. Two boards are nailed together for a 
trough, and short boards nailed on the end, so as to raise them about six 
inches high; in this the oats are placed. The troughs are in a yard or barn, 
to which openings are made just large enough for the lambs to pass, but 
too small for the sheep. 

LAMBS— Weaning. —Referring to this subject, W. H. Ladd, of Jeffer¬ 
son county, Ohio, (first rate authority on all sheep matters,) says: My 
practice is to turn the lambs in with their mothers, after they have been 
separated some twelve hours, and as soon as they nurse, separate them 
Again; then after twenty-four hours, allow them to nurse once more. Since 
I have adopted this plan, I have never had an ewe’s udder injured. Lambs 
should have a very little salt frequently when first weaned, as the herbage 
lacks the large proportion of salt which the mother’s milk contains. But 
great care should be used not to give them much salt at once, or it will set 
them to purging; and if a lamb commences to purge soon after being 
taken from the mother, it seldom ever recovers from it. 

SHEEP —Bringing out of winter. —The Ohio Cultivator gives the 
following mode of preparing for spring—the most difficult season for sheep. 
It is well to feed animals well on the approach of such a season, but it is 
still better, easier, and safer, to give them good and regular food, and good 
management all the year round. 

Our lambs come from the 20th of April to the middle of May, and that 
the ewes may be strong, and have an abundance of milk, we commence 


HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 



31 

to feed a little bran and oats in March, and continue it until they get a 
sufficiency of grass. A ewe in good condition, and with a good flow of 
milk, seldom gives the keeper any trouble, but the reverse with the sheep, 
the reverse with trouble. 

SHEEP— Shearing apparatus for. —An Ohio correspondent of the 
Country Gentleman furnishes that paper with the following:—Not having 

seen any notice of any improvement on 
the old-fashioned mode of shearing 
sheep,—no doubt as uncomfortable for 
the sheep as the shearer—I thought I 
would send you a sketch of one I have 
been using for the last three years, 
which I find to be just*the thing. It was 
first made and used by a neighbor who 
Fi g- 20. has followed shearing many years. It 

has these advantages—the shearer stands up to his work, having both 
hands free; the sheep cannot injure itself by struggling, even if heavy with 
lamb, and you can shear faster and easier. 

Description. —A. Small rope, with iron ring in the end, passes through 
two holes in the table, and over the sheep’s head. 

B. Hickory stick, 7 feet long, 2 inches wide at the notched end, notches 
ij or 2 inches apart, for adapting it to the size of the sheep. 

C. Shackles, made of two leathern straps, one inch wide, fastened to 
each end of a small iron ring, ij or 2 inches in diameter, and passing 
and fastened to another ring 2 inches in diameter. 

D. Forward end of stick B. 

E. Wooden wedge, to fasten rings on the notched stick. 

Mode of operation. —The sheep is caught, turned on its haunches, and 
the under part of the neck and between the fore legs are sheared; then 
lifted on the table or bench, the head placed under the rope, the leather 
shackles put on the feet, and stick inserted—as shown in the cut; one side 
is sheared and then the sheep is turned over, and finished. Hoping this 
may benefit some of my brother farmers, I submit it to your consideration. 

It strikes us that any assistance in performing the laborious and dis¬ 
agreeable work of shearing sheep will be specially acceptable to the far¬ 
mer, and we gladly give place to the 

above. A friend 1 suggests an im¬ 
provement, shown . in Fig. 21, repre¬ 
senting two leathern Fig. 21. loops at each end 


of a stick, through which the feet are inserted; and as the legs are extended 
these loops draw tight and hold the sheep fast. A sliding ring, with a pin 








32 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


and holes, accommodates it to the size of the sheep. Two leather straps 
(not shown) nailed to the table, and connected by a buckle in the middle, 
then receive the neck of the sheep, as in the mode described above. 

SHEEP— Cure for foot rot.— A correspondent says that the best and 
simplest remedy that he has tried consists in washing the feet perfectly 
clean, paring off the bad parts, and then dipping the foot for a few seconds 
into a small vessel of gas tar—a tin cup four inches deep, and three or 
four wide, will answer. 

SHEEP— Marking. —A writer in an agricultural paper gives the follow¬ 
ing directions: I first used turpentine, linseed oil, and lamp-black, stamp¬ 
ing my initials on each sheep ; in a few weeks not a mark was legible. I 
next tried boiling tar, keeping it hot by placing the vessel containing it in a 
kettle of coals. This was legible until the fleece was removed. I tried 
Venitian red and linseed oil, which soon became obliterated. Lastly I tried 
coal or gas tar, which makes a distinct and durable mark. Mark ewes on 
the side, wethers on the shoulder, and bucks on the rump. Sometimes 
stamp with my initial, cut in a block of soft wood ; also use a stamp, cut 
in a circular form making a ring, and when in a hurry use the large end of 
a corn cob, making one, two or three spots near together. By marking 
sheep of different sexes on different parts of the body, it facilitates the 
assorting of a flock. Last spring marked all my breeding ewes with cop¬ 
per labels bearing a number stamped upon the face, suspended from the 
ear by a wire rng; but several of them are now missing, having been 
tom loose. 

Another plan we give as follows: The plan of marking sheep may be 
said to be of numerous kinds—painting on the wool annually the owner’s 
name; one to use the brush and stencil, and still another to put the letter on 
with a stamp. The stamp may be made in different ways. One is to cut 
igy the letters out of a piece of thin board of some kind of wood not 

i'l easily split, or to cut them of stiff hard sole leather, and then to 

SI screw them on the end of a convenient handle, as shown in the 

cut, (fig. 22). A better and more substantial stamp may be made 
by a blacksmith, forming the letter and handle all in one piece of 
Fig. 22. iron. Or the farmer may make his own stamp of a piece of small 

iron rod, either giving his initials, if they are of simple shaped letters, or 
bending the rod so as to make a circle, a triangle, or any other figure 
which he and others will understand. 

The paint used may be made of lamp-black and linseed oil—the former 
being previously mixed with a small quantity of turpentine, or, if preferred, 
red ochre may be used. Sometimes hog’s lard is used instead of oil, which 
answers well if used in warm weather. The stamp is dipped in or touched 
to the paint, and a single pressure on the animal just after the fleece is 


HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE AND POULTRY. 


33 


removed by shearing, fixes the name till the next shearing. Some sheep- 
owners put the letters on the shoulders, but as sheep usually stand in the 
pen with the back to the manager when they are selected from the flock, it 
is most convenient to mark them on the back or rump. The wethers may 
be lettered on the right side and the ewes on the left, which readily enables 
one to distinguish them; and if there are several rams, these may be 
marked on the top. An additional mark my be applied on the shoulder 
at the proper season, to designate the ram that has been employed. 

The numbers and ages are shown by marks on the ear, and these should 
be made when the lambs are quite young, or a day or two old, when the 
dams are more readily known than after the lapse of some weeks. The 
numbering may be readily carried up to i ,000 or more. It is as follows: 

Fig. 23.—One notch cut in the left ear, at the top , is 1. 

do. do. do, under side, 3. 

do. do. right ear, at top, 10. 
do. do. do. under side, 30. 

Fig. 23. A combination of these notches easily makes any 

number to 99. 

Fig. 24.—One notch cut in the left ear, at the end, is 100. 

do. do. right ear, at the end, 200. 

Fig. 25.—The point of the left ear cut straight off is 400. 

do. do. right ear do. 500. 

The figures furnish examples of these markings, to which are added the 
holes punched through to show the age. As no owner 
would make a mistake of ten years in the age, these 
marks are much simpler: 

Fig. 24. Fig. 26.—One hole in the left ear is 1. 

do. right ear, 3. 

In order to explain more fully these different marks, the following refer¬ 
ences to the figures are added: 

Fig. 23 is 1, 3, 10 and 30=44. 

Fig. 24 is 100 and 200=300. 

Fig. 25 is 400 and 500=900. 

Fig. 25. Fig. 26, giving the age, is 1 and 3=4; which means 

that the lamb came in 1864 or 1874, as the case may be—no hole indica¬ 
ting a year, as i860 or 1870, a mistake ten years in the age not being 
possible. 

Fig. 27 is an example showing a combination of these marks, as follows: 

■—1 plus 30 plus 30 plus 100=161; and the lamb belong, 
ing to the year 1877. 

The numbers being marked every year, and the age 
Fi S- 26, marked besides, there is no possibility of making any 






brand’s cyclopedia. 


34 

mistake in a single individual. By a book register the number of the dam 
may be kept, the date or day of lambing, the ram, and 
any additional remarks. 

The best marker is a saddler’s spring punch, which 
may be used for cutting the notches by placing it at the 
edge of the ear; or for puncturing the holes in the middle. The holes 
should be about a fifth of an inch in diameter. If too small, they will 
grow up whon the wound heals. 

SHEEP— Stretches in.— An eminent and skillful manager of sheep, 
says that he seldom fails to cure sheep of this disease in a few minutes, by 
placing a spoonful of tar in the mouth, and holding it shut till the tar melts 
and runs down. Lard and castor oil produce a slower and less certain 
effect. 

SHEEP —Washing. — A farmer who brook-washes his sheep till the 
water runs perfectly clear from the fleece, says his wool nets him in the 
market from six to eight cents per pound more than the imperfectly washed 
wool of his neighbors. 

SHEEP —Wintering. —The three great requisites for successfully win¬ 
tering sheep are, ist, good and regular water and food; 2d, good, clean 
shelter; and 3d, keep them in small flocks. The following is the method 
adopted by Robert J. Swan, of Geneva, N. Y., one of our best farmers: 

I consider, for my fattening sheep, the best mode is to have good deep 
sheds (34 feet,) racks to receive their straw or hay, and troughs to feed 
their meal in, and keep the yards well littered with straw. We feed, to fat¬ 
tening sheep, two bushels of corn or two bushels of oil cake meal, to the 
hundred sheep, with plenty of good bright wheat straw three times a day ? 
till the 1 st of March, at which time we give them hay, in their racks, three 
times a day and one bushel of corn or oil meal per day per hundred. My 
store sheep we give plenty of bright oat or wheat straw in racks, three 
times a day, and one bushel of com or oil cake meal per day per hundred, 
till the ist of March, at which time I give them hay and no grain, but always 
take good care to see that all my stock yards are well littered with straw. 
My lambs I feed hay three times a day, and three pecks of oil meal or corn 
meal to the hundred. All the yards well supplied with water. 

I never lose my sheep in winter, but more in summer, and those the fat¬ 
test and the best—about two per cent. Judging from what I have noticed, 
on Mr. Johnston’s farm, I think the fine wooled sheep less subject to dis¬ 
ease than the coarser breeds. Where small flocks of coarse wooled sheep 
are kept, I think them healthier than those kept in larger, or in moderate 
sized flocks. Having been a pupil of Mr. Johnston, I adopted his course 
of farming, both in cultivating my farm, and fattening my sheep. 



Fig. 27. 


The Farm-or, how to Make the Farm Pay. 



Doing work in its season. —A most important element for success in 
farming is doing every thing in its season. Delays not only cause confusion 
in the great system of operations, but many times, and we might say in 
the majority of cases, greatly increase labor as well as lessen the pro¬ 
ducts of land. Taking the seasons into consideration, it becomes a matter 
of much importance to the farmer that brief memoranda of the labors of 
each month be laid before him, that he may perceive at a glance what 
points particularly demand his attention at that time. We therefore give 
each month separately, beginning with— 

Work for January. —Plans should now be made for the coming year. 
If not already accomplished, prepare to lay out the farm in regular fields, 
and introduce a good rotation—which will enable the farmer to carry on 
all his labor with the regularity of clock-work; to keep clean fields, to pre¬ 
serve their fertility, and to prevent confusion so often resulting from too 
much work for the force at particular periods. 

There are a number of important points to which a good, skillful farmer 
should direct his attention before the spring work opens. He has now more 
spare time than then, if a farmer can be said to have any spare moments at 
any time during the year. One of the most important matters is to pre¬ 
pare Farm Accounts by procuring blank books and arranging the headings. 











36 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


He should have a memorandum book, which he should always carry in 
his pocket so that he can note down at the time anything that occurs to 
him, and before the same is forgotten. Each and every field and crop 
should have a page devoted to it, and all outlays and profits should be 
carefully recorded. His farm should be well laid out, measured and map¬ 
ped, which we think will be found a pleasant winter’s task. And his 
granaries should be carefully measured and graduated, to show quickly the 
number of bushels of contents. A scale for weighing his domestic animals 
will pay for itself every year in the information it will afford him in relation 
to feeding. He should also keep correct accounts with all his neighbors, 
if he would avoid difficulties, and all his accounts, both with his fields and 
otherwise, should be a model of neatness, distinctness and systematic order. 

Farm laborers should be hired in season, as the best are in demand 
and of course will all be engaged early, and it often happens that by pay. 
ing a dollar or two more per month, a greater amount in valuable assistance 
will be secured, or in other words, the best are generally the cheapest. 

Keep all bams and sheds clean and in order, and prevent the untidy 
accumulations and confusion which some premises witness. Keep all 
tools under shelter, provide a place for every thing, and let every thing 
be in its place; and do not allow hens to roost on wagons, horse-rakes, 
and carriages. 

If cornstalks can be cut very short by horse-power, before feeding to 
cattle, a large amount of saving will be effected. 

Let cattle and other animals be kept perfectly clean, comfortable, and 
sufficiently warm. If they occupy sheds, great care should be taken to 
prevent cold currents between the boards, and especially under the sills, and 
high fences or other screens should prevent all winds from blowing in the 
front side. If kept in stables, still greater care should be exercised to pre¬ 
serve cleanliness and to provide sufficient ventilation. Many denounce 
stables for cattle on account of the foul air and foul keeping they are sub¬ 
jected to; while others denounce sheds on account of the cold currents 
which sweep through them. Use the curry-comb freely and regularly on 
both cattle and horses. 

Cellars under dwellings should be frequently examined and kept scru¬ 
pulously clean; the walls may be whitewashed in the winter. Where there 
is danger of the ingress of frost at the windows, it is neater to provide 
double windows, (on hinges, to hook up,) than the more unsightly stuffings 
of straw, old carpets, and rags, etc. 

Posts can be made at great profit during this month. We give engrav¬ 
ings of frames to hold the posts, which is easily explained and understood. 
The post is wedged into the space g and the auger being inserted into the 


THE FARM. 


37 


two holes shown at the middle of the frame, it is driven through the post 
by turning the handle or wrench. Marks are made on the sliding frame, 
to show the precise place to bring the posts, so that 
all may be bored alike—the auger remaining fixed. 
Fig. 29 shows the bed piece for receiving the post 
on a larger scale. Fig. 30 exhibits the contrivance 
for securing the post firmly to its position for hew¬ 
ing or dressing with the axe—a cavity being made in a log for receiving it, 
with the iron point driven in to secure it. 

. An important improvement might probably be made in the boring frame 
by placing it in a slightly inclined position (as by shor¬ 
tening the legs on one side,) so that when a fly-wheel 
is attached to the auger, its weight would cause it to 
descend into the post. This fly-wheel might be a com¬ 
mon grind-stone, in the absence of anything better, attached to the auger. 

Rats and mice should be exterminated from all farm buildings. A few 
good cats are the best and most easily set traps. Rat-holes in cellars may 
be stopped by a mixture of hydraulic cement and broken bottles. 

Sheep should be kept under sheds, and their fine condition maintained 
by a feeding of about half a pint of corn daily to each, giving less early in 
winter, and more towards spring. A small regular feeding of roots would 
assist in keeping up their excellent condition. 

Corn keeps best on the cob. Shell such only as is needed for winter 
use. The second quality, or smaller ears, if kept in narrow, well ventilated 
cribs, will make good food for commencing the fattening of swine next 
autumn. 

Snow on roofs, which often accumulates in eave-troughs, prevents the 
escape of rain or melting snow, and damming up, flows through the shingles 
and passes down through the house, should be timely scraped off, which 
may be done by the assistance of a ladder and a long-handled hoe. 

Soot in chimneys should be burned or scrapped out when the roof is wet, 
and thus pervent danger of fire by burning cinders falling out on the dry 
shingles, whenever the soot may accidentally take fire. 

Weekly discussions. —Farmers will receive much valuable local infor¬ 
mation by instituting weekly discussions among their neighbors. A moon¬ 
light evening may be well spent in this way at a district school-house or 
town hall, and the agriculture of the district improved, and a neighborly 
feeling promoted. As part of the time might be well spent by reading short 
extracts from agricultural papers and discussing their merits. 

Work for February. —Continue the labors of the winter, and prepare 
for the spring and summer’s campaign. Draw, cut and spread manure on 



Fig. 30. 



Fig. 29. 







38 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


grass lands, or pile it up and make compost heaps of it, in such fields as 
need it. Fill ice houses, prune orchards, cut grafts, and pack them in damp 
moss or sawdust for spring use, taking care to have them correctly labeled. 
Lay plans for spring, and for the entire season, so that men may be regu¬ 
larly employed at all times without crowding or confusion; secure good 
farm laborers—the best are always engaged first, the highest priced are 
most always the cheapest, by saving constant watching and superintend¬ 
ing ; a dollar or two more per month will often secure several dollars 
more in labor, or its equivalent, good management. Open drains or chan¬ 
nels in wheat-fields which have become chocked by snow or ice, should 
be cleared out on the approach of thawing weather. Cattle should be kept 
off meadows; horses with heaves may be relieved by feeding with wet, cut 
feed, especially of fine, well-cured corn-stalks. 

On stormy days pick over apples in cellars, and such as are beginning to 
decay, if abundant, may be regularly fed to cattle, horses and swine. Oil 
harness, make farm gates and ladders, and pannels for hurdle fences. 

Read carefully the directions for January, which apply equally well at the 
present season. 

Work for march. —Finish the various jobs of winter, and prepare to 
commence spring labor in earnest. Examine all tools, and put them in 
good condition. Paint and grease wagons and carts. Examine and replace 
harrow teeth, if such are needed. Repair hinges of dragging gates, and 
nail loose boards on fences. Procure and clean grass seed for spring seed¬ 
ing. Examine and obtain a good supply of the best seed of oats, barley, 
and spring wheat. See that teams are kept in good working order, and 
if they can be frequently used, half a day at a time, they will become 
better accustomed to the active labor of spring. Inspect thoroughly all 
the bams and outbuildings, and see that every part is in good order. Oil 
harness, and repair it, where necessary, for spring work. This is the month 
that is found the best to make maple sugar, full directions for which can 
be found elsewhere. 

Sow clover-seed early—it may be most accurately done on a thin snow, 
rendering the seeds and footsteps visible. Plant early potatoes, for family 
use, as soon as the ground is thawed; if previously sprouted, in a warm 
place, an inch or two in length, they will come up sooner. Clean out cel¬ 
lars thoroughly. Give special care to cows and calves. Read carefully 
the directions for January and February for additional suggestions. 

Work for april—Fences.— One of the earliest tasks that can claim 
the farmer’s attention is repairing fences. Systematic managers whose 
farms are divided by common rail structures, after having determined about 


THE FARM. 


39 



Fig. 3 1 -— 


how long they will continue, say six years, divide their whole 
farm into six parts, and repair a sixth each year—this keeps all 
in good order without further trouble, and without having too 
much to attend to one season, and but little another. Board 
fences shoul dbe annually examined throughout their whole 
length, and loose boards nailed tight. 

New board fences should never be bat¬ 
tened on the face or joints over the posts, 

as the practice tends to cause decay; but ‘ Fig. 32.— Best mode of 
M“o de of in the course of 15 or 20 years, when the staking common rail fences. 
fencS-ver- en( ^ s begin to rot and become loosened, battens will secure and 
tical view, make them strong for several years longer. If farmers are able 
to replace their old worm fences with post and rail, board or stone fences, 
they should begin on one side and construct a certain amount each year, 
keeping a register of the same. Then, in future years, when repairs are 
needed, they can go through in the same way and in the same number 
of years. 

In many regions of the country the common crooked rail fence is exten¬ 
sively used, and cannot be immediately replaced by such better forms as 
board fences, stone walls, or post and rail fence. As commonly constructd, 
with spreading stakes at each comer, it necessarily occupies a strip of 
ground nearly a rod wide. Vertical stakes, wed near the top, lessen the 
difficulty, but are not nearly so strong as when staked according to the 
made shown in the above figures—seven rails high and two riders besides, 
makes a very strong fence, about seven feet high. 

A good straight fence is sometimes made of split rails, and a common 
worm fence may be converted into one of this sort. It is composed of six 
rails for each length, and is about five feet high. It occupies more space 
than a post or board fence, but much less than a worm fence. The accom- 
paning cut (fig. 33) will show the mode of construction, and represents the 
place where the two lengths or rails meet. The uprights, 
which hold the rails to their place are simply two sawed 
strips of wood, about five inches wide, an inch and a half 
thick, and five feet long—the length being equal to the 
height of the fence. They are connected by nailing blocks 
between them, leaving them about five inches apart. One 
of these blocks is at the bottom, the other within about a 
foot of the top. On the latter, the three top rails rest. 
Three large nails are driven at each place into the blocks. 
The fence is kept upright by a brace on each side, which also serves as an 
additional security in holding the uprights together. These braces are five 



Fig. 33- Cheap 
Fence. 




40 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


feet long about eighteen inches of the lower end entering the earth. Three 
large nails secure the upper end to the uprights. They may be of sawed 
stuff, or split like common fence stakes. The lower end of the uprights rests 
on a flat stone. It will be noticed that no part is subjected to decay, except 
the braces, the lower end of which enter the ground. These will need 
occasional renewing, unless of durable wood. All the rest will last as long 
as the rails, or thirty or forty years. If the nails before using are dipped 
in hot grease, oil, or gas tar, they will not rust for a long time. The 
braces should press against the uprights about three feet high. 

Where unruly horses prove troublesome, by throwing off the riders of 
fences, the annoyance may be obviated by boring a small hole through the 
stake and passing a piece of annealed wire through this hole and around 
the rider; a day’s work will thus secure a long line of fence, and may save 
many dollars’ loss. 

The importance of good fences is well understood by those who have 
observed the difference between crops safe from all intruders, and those 
occasionally trodden down and ruined; between moving on with the work 
without interruption, and the frequent annoyance of stopping important 
operations to run after intruding cattle, colts, pigs, etc. 

Meadows. —As soon as these are dry enough to bear feet without injury 
to the turf, they should be carefully picked of all loose and projecting 
stones, which might injure a mowing machine, and then well rolled so as to 
make the surface as smooth and perfect as possible. Stumps should be 
dug or pulled out, accidental brush or other rubbish removed, and small 
hillocks leveled down. The farmer who has seen a mowing machine broken, 
at a cost of five dollars, and a delay of a day, by a stone that might have 
been removed in five minutes, will appreciate the importance, comfort and 
economy, of a smooth surface. There is some satisfaction in the reflec¬ 
tion that new farm machinery is going to compel the adoption of a smoother 
and more perfect kind of farming. Much is lost by the imperfect, thin and 
uneven seeding of meadows. Bare spots and thin grass, amounting as 
ti^y very often do to one-fourth of the whole sur¬ 
face, would make a total loss of five acres in every 
twenty acre meadow. Sometimes the loss amounts 
Fig. "34—Grass oTlvieadow to much more. The importance of thick and 
unevenly and thinly seeded. even see( ji n g j s no t sufficiently appreciated. Thin 

or bare patches in existing meadows may he covered with grass by running 
over the meadow with a fine-tooth harrow the first day the surface is dry, 
then sowing a mixture of clover and timothy, and rolling the seed in. If 
the meadow has been top-dressed with fine manure in autumn, the harrow 
will mix it with the surface, and assist the germination of the seed, as well 
as its subsequent vigorous growth. 



THE FARM. 


41 



Fig- 35- Grass or Meadow 
evenly and thickly seeded. 



Meadows which were top-dressed with coarse manure in autumn or win¬ 
ter, which was more or less spread in lumps, should be harrowed as early 
as possible, so as to break those lumps and spread the whole uniformly. 

Cattle droppings on meadows or pastures should 
be finely beaten to pieces and well scattered over 
the surface as soon as the frost will admit, and 
before the frost has all disappeared from the soil. 
It is scarcely necessary to mention that no good 
farmer ever allows his meadows or pastures to be touched by a hoof early 
in spring, while the ground is soft. 

Teams.— Every good manager has already taken care to have his teams 
in excellent order for the heavy work of spring—but as they have not been 
much accustomed to hard and steady work, it would be advisable to plow 
only half a day at a time with them at first, until they become well accus¬ 
tomed to it, using them the other half-day for job work, light teaming, etc. 
A little care in this respect wall often prevent sore shoulders and reduced 

condition. The harness should be examined 
frequently, to see that it fits well, and to pre¬ 
vent chafing. It will be observed that when 
Fig. 36. Cut and Cover Slices. horses are plowing, the traces draw down¬ 
ward, and when attached to a wagon horizontally; the back straps should 
therefore be lengthened a little when they are removed from the wagon to 
the plow. 

Plowing. —Light or gravelly soils, which quickly become dry, may be 
plowed at almost any time ; but rich loams should be taken at precisely 
the right period. If plowed too early, while 
yet wet, they may become poached and injured 
for the season. If left too late, the spring 
rains may have settled back what the frosts of 
Fig . 37 —Narrow Furrow Slices, winter have loosened. Plowing well saves 
much labor in subsequent tillage. Narrow furrow slices (except with sward) 
pulverize the soil more perfectly, and leave a beautiful mellow surface. 
Furrows seven or eight inches deep, and only six inches wide, are easy for 
the team, and leave the land in very handsome condition. 

Manure. —This may be applied with advantage by putting it on the 
land in such condition as to be pulverized finely. After spreading, it should 
always be th< oughly harrowed, and broken and intermixed with the top 
soil before plowing under. Coarse manure should be used in compost 
heaps If very strawy, throw it up into heaps in the yard for remaining 
during the summer; if less strawy, draw it out to the fields where it is to be 
applied, and make compost heaps by thin alternate layers of turf or loam 
and manure. 





42 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Carrots. —Failure often results with this crop by being planted too late 
—the seeds miss, the sun bums the heads. Get them in as early as possi¬ 
ble, or as soon as the ground can be made thoroughly mellow. It does not 
pay to plant carrots on foul or weedy ground. The labor of hoeing will be 
too great, but if the ground is clean, rich and mellow, carrots may be made 
eminently profitable. Farmers often think it necessary to turn their ani¬ 
mals on early grass, thus injuring the turf; but a supply of carrots in spring 
would give them all the advantages of green food, and none of its 



Fig. 38.—Wagon 
Jack. 


drawbacks. 

Barley and oats. —Sow these as early as the seed can be put in pre¬ 
pared land—we have known a delay of two weeks to lessen the crop 
equal to its entire net profit. 

Potatoes should also be planted early, for the great mass of experience 
is in favor of early planting to prevent rot. 

Calves. —The great secret of success in raising calves, after keeping 
them clean and comfortable, is very regular and uniform feeding, combined 
with nutritious food, and avoiding all sudden changes in 
their food. On the whole, it is best to wean them very 
early, as they will then never suck the cow again or them¬ 
selves. Their food may at first be new milk, then warm 
skimmed milk, then skimmed milk with meal intermixed, 
thus passing from new milk to common food, with meal^ 
and being especially careful that all these changes 
should be very gradual, and almost imperceptible. 

Wheat crops. —Red root and cockle should be pulled early, and not a 
vestige of either left. 

Rainy days. —Clear out all rubbish from cellars, and keep them clean 
and well purified. Grease wagons, oil harness, brush up stables, examine 
and repair tools, and have them all in perfect order for the busy season now 
about to commence. Prepare account books, and keep an accurate account 
with every field. You can more easily spare a whole day now in preparing 
matters than you can in busy season afford to give an hour. So don’t 
postpone. 

Orchards and shade trees. —The enterprising farmer should not over¬ 
look these. The time for planting may vary considerably with circumstan¬ 
ces ; if they have been dug up early, before the buds have swollen, and have 
been well heeled in, they may be set out safely, even after the leaves on 
standing trees have begun to appear. The great point is to take up the 
roots with them; they are in many cases nearly all left behind; stems and 
tops are of not much value without roots. If, in removing trees, this point 
is carefully attended to, and the roots are well spread out in every direction 


THE FARM. 


43 


when set, they cannot fail to grow, and one in a thousand will not be lost. 
After that the great matter is to keep the surface mellow and well cultivated. 

Work for may.— The prominent and important labors of this month are 
the completion of seeding spring crops, where this has not already been 
done, and planting hoed crops. 

Corn. —The amount of this crop raised is more controlled by good and 
bad management than almost any other. Farmers have different ideas about 
the quantity that should be raised to an acre, some being satisfied with thirty 
bushels, they should average at least eighty bushels—over one hundred may 
be reached. The materials for success are a well prepared, rich soil, and 
constant and clean cultivation. The former claims especial attention at 
present. A sward inverted to a moderate depth is a favorite mode of 
planting; it succeeds admirably if it has been well manured on the surface 
the previous autumn, the rains carrying the enriching portions into the soil. 
On good ground this will often make a difference of twenty to twenty-five 
bushels per acre. Inverting the whole sod perfectly will save much hand 
hoeing. Rolling and then harrowing lengthwise with the sod is the common 
mode; but Share’s harrow (if made of steel teeth,) accomplishes both 
these operations in one, and mellows the soil twice as deep as common 
harrowing. Mark the rows perfectly straight and even, this will allow the 
horse cultivator to run close to the rows. In strong or heavy soils never 
plant over an inch deep—in light soils not over an inch and a half. Experi¬ 
ments have shown that beyond these depths the corn 
is smaller and longer in coming up. When manure is 
applied in spring, it should be fine, and thoroughly 
intermixed by harrowing. In lumps it will be of little 
use. The old-fashioned way of frightening crows and 
blackbirds was the creation of effigies known as scare¬ 
crows (fig. 39) stretched across the field, if sufficiently 
numerous, will repel crows; but the best way is to tar 
the seed. To do this right, dash hot water on a half 
Fig. 39. Old-fashioned bushel of corn, which by draining off quickly will heat 
scare-crow. t h e sur f ace 0 f the grain without killing the germ. Then 
pour on a pint of hot tar—every grain will become thinly coated, then dust 
with air-slacked lime, which is best, or with plaster. No bird will touch the 
seed when planted. Gas tar cannot safely be substituted, as it often kills 
the germ, or coats it so that water cannot enter. Plant all missing hills 
with the earliest sorts, that all may ripen together. 

Dropping concentrated manure into the hills gives the plants an early 
start, and increases the amount of the crop. As old com is better than 
new for fall feeding, a substitute may be obtained by planting an early 




44 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


crop of the Early Canada, which will be hard and dry, while common com 
is yet soft. 

Potatoes. —To raise potatoes to a profit, it is important to avoid much 
hand hoeing. Let the ground be therefore perfectly clean. If mellow and 
smooth, it may be managed as follows.: Plow furrows three feet apart, and 
drop the pieces a foot and a half in the row, then with a one-horse plow, or 
what is better, with a large-toothed one-horse cultivator, the central tooth 
being removed, cover the row, leaving a ridge over it. Let it remain about 
two weeks, or just before the potatoes come up, then harrow the whole sur¬ 
face lengthwise. This will be as good as one thorough hoeing by hand. 
Potatoes planted eighteen inches asunder in the row will give nearly double 
the amount obtained from hills three feet apart. No farmer should be sat¬ 
isfied with less than 300 bushels per acre of potatoes. 

Roots. —Plant a good supply of field beets, carrots, rutabagas and pars¬ 
nips. A daily supply of these in winter, mixed with dry food, will con¬ 
tribute largely to the health and thrift of domestic animals. Many farmers 
fail in raising these crops by not attending to the three essential requisites, 
viz: a rich soil, clear from weeds, and keeping the whole so well cultivated 
that weeds cannot start. All novices in raising rutabagas allow four times 
too many roots to grow. They should be thinned about a foot and a half 
apart, if the soil is as rich as it should be. Planting any of these crops on 

any other than a well enriched or manured 
soil, is a waste of land and labor. 

Corn for fodder may be sown at the 
close of the month, for early cutting, or for 
soiling—for either purpose, it should not all 
Fig. 40. Pig. 41. Fig. 42. ripen at the same time. 

Fig. 40—Light crop, sowed thin, in drills. Fig. 41—Heavy crop, sowed 
thick, in drills. Fig. 42—Light crop, effect of broadcast sowing. 

The best way is to sow in furrows or drills, by plowing, harrowing and 
marking out the furrows three feet apart, then strew the grain from the 
basket into the furrows by hand, at the rate of three bushels per acre, and 
cover with a harrow, nothing further will be needed, but passing the one- 
horse cultivator after the plants are up. It is often sown too thin, making 
tall but coarse stalks, as fig. 40; when sown broadcast it is apt to be 
weedy, as in fig. 41; but sown in thick drills, about three bushels per acre, 
as in fig. 42, is best. 

Buckwheat.— Although this crop is not sown for some weeks yet to 
come, the ground should be well prepared or mellowed for some time before¬ 
hand. Don’t postpone this preparation till the last moment. 

Calves. —To raise good calves they should be fed the whole season, and 





THE FARM. 45 

one great secret of good management is to avoid any sudden changes in 
their food. 

Sorghum. —This should be sown as early as the com crop. Many cover 
the seed too deep. They are smaller than corn, and should under no cir¬ 
cumstances be buried more than an inch. 

There are several operations of smaller importance which should not be 
overlooked during this month. Particular attention should be given to 
fences around pastures, and they should be made strong and secure. 
Buildings and fences may now be whitewashed to advantage. The work 
should be done on a dry day—when the whitewash will enter the pores of 
the wood. Painting, on the other hand, should be deferred till autumn, when 
the coat will harden better, and it will become more durable. Orchards, 
which were transplanted in autumn, should have the cmsted soil about the 
young trees broken and made mellow—it is leaving this hard crust untouched 
that has induced many to think that autumn planting for hardy trees is not 
so good as in spring. Coarse manure may be made into compost heaps for 
fall use. Mullens and thistles should be dug up in pastures, and all early 
starting weeds should be destroyed. 

WORK FOR JUNE —Corn fodder.— Continue or finish the seeding of 
corn fodder, as described in work for May. It is a great advantage to have 
a succession for soiling, in the dry part of autumn. By sowing large kinds 
early, and small or early varieties late, a long succession may be obtained. 
Any vacant ground may be well filled up with this crop, and if sown in fur¬ 
rows, as already described, and cultivated twice, it will leave the ground, 
when harvested, clean and in fine condition, and the roots remaining will 
enrich the land. Hence the corn fodder crop may be regarded as one of 
the best for improving the soil. 

Cultivating and hoeing corn. —Every farmer should endeavor to 
accomplish as much as possible by horse labor, and save hard hoeing. To 
this end the soil should previously be in as clean condition as practicable, 
and perfectly straight and even rows will allow the cultivator to pass close 
to them. More com will grow on an acre if planted in drills, or in thick 
rows of hills, in one direction; but when labor is scarce, it may be more 
economical on the whole to plant in hills both ways, unless the land 
should be unusually clean ; the nearer the rows or hills can be to each other— 
that is, the more evenly distributed the com is over the ground, the greater 
will be the crop, other things being equal. One of the best farmers we 
know plants his corn three feet each way. His average is eighty bushels 
per acre; he has obtained 130, with high manuring and best management. 

While it is desirable to employ enough hand labor to keep down every 
weed, the main reliance should be on horse culture—one horse accomplish- 


46 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



ing as much as the men. An excellent practice, which has proved very 
successful, especially in strong soils liable to become crusted, is to pass the 
cultivator once a week regularly, from the time it is up until too large to 
admit a horse between the rows. 

Where there are missing hills in a cornfield, replant with an earlier sort, 
or plant three hills of bush beans to each hill of corn. 

Ruta bagas.— These succeed well on all rich and rather light soils. 
Unless the soil be well enriched, it will be seed wasted and labor lost. They 
cannot be sown profitably without a good drill, 
which will plant several acres per day. In small 
experiments the seed may be dropped by nailing a 
tin cup to the lower end of a cane or stick, per¬ 
forating the botton with a small hole, a trifle larger 
Pig. 43.—Well Cultivated than a seed, and shaking this with the seed along 
Root Crops. the drill, and covering by raking. This does well 

for garden crops. Never allow the weeds to become more than an inch 
high, and thin out the plants to at least one foot apart in the drill, or a 
foot and a half in very rich land. All novices in raising this crop may be 
quickly known by leaving too many plants, which crowd and diminish each 
other in size. 

Weeds. —Prompt and energetic destruction of weeds constitutes a prom¬ 
inent portion of the labors of this month. The 
great point is to take them early, when they are 
small and feeble. A weed in growing from an 
inch to a foot in height, increases as the cube, 
or a thousand fold in weight or bulk, and exhausts 
the soil correspondingly. Single weeds often 
produce 500 to 1,000 seed—sometimes several 
thousand. Scattering these over the soil occasions necessarily a great 
increase of labor another year. 

Hoes. —Procure the very best that can be had in the market. The dif¬ 
ference in price between a cheap and a good tool may be earned by the 
latter in a single day. Keeping hoes ground sharp will enable the laborers 
who use them to perform more and better work. 

Clover seed. —The first crop should be cut before the end of this 
month, or if pastured down, the animals should be removed at the same time. 

Sheep washing should be performed as early as the weather will safely 
admit—and after shearing, special care should be taken to shelter the sheep 
during cold storms. 

Animals bloated. —If animals become bloated from eating fresh clover, 
the best remedy is a dose of pulverized charcoal, say a teaspoonful to a full 
grown cow, and a dose of corresponding size for other animals, according 



Fig. 44.—Root Crops grown 
among weeds. 


THE FARM. 


47 


to their weight. The charcoal is best if fresh, or if kept corked air-tight in 
bottles. It should be mixed well with water, and may be poured down the 
throat from a junk bottle. Fresh burning coals from any wood fire, pulver¬ 
ized at once in a mortar, will make a good material, but the article usually 
sold and made in coal pits, is too hard, and generally too old to be good. 

Orchards. —Newly set orchards should have the soil well cultivated or 
mellowed about the trees, and kept perfectly free from the grass and weeds. 
On the approach of hot and dry weather, a wide and deep mulching of old 
straw or other litter will be useful. All orchards should be carefully exam¬ 
ined for the borer, which if taken in time may be easily killed before it has 
gone far into the wood; even afterwards, by clearing away the powdered 
wood, the insect may be followed and destroyed in his hole, by a wire or 
flexible twig. Scraping away the earth from the foot of the trunk, and 
applying soft soap, will serve to repel these insects from depositing their 
eggs, but is not always infallible. 

There are a few other operations that should not be forgotten in time. 
Destroy catterpillars in orchards; white-wash fences and buildings; on 
rainy days get harvest tools all ready; provide hives for swarming bees. 

WORK FOR JULY.—Continue to cultivate well till arrested by the 
labors of haying and harvesting. Continue the war against weeds, and 
before they go to seed cast them out of your land. See work for June. 

Haying. —The best time to cut hay is at the transition from flower to 
seed. The precise point, of course, cannot generally be attained in ordi¬ 
nary practice, where many days are required for securing a crop, but the 
nearer we come to it the better. The expedition accomplished by means 
of mowing machines, horse-rakes and horse-forks, has, however, greatly 
facilitated this object. Cutting grass early produces more readily a good 
after growth, if done too soon, it will lack substance; if too late, it will be 
hard and woody. Celerity of operations depends much on good manage¬ 
ment, and having everything in readiness. The omission of some requisite 
will delay the whole, and a day’s delay, by throwing the mass of the work 
into a rain storm, may result in heavy loss. 

Stacking in the open field cannot be recommended. Ample barns should 
always be provided. Yet temporary neces¬ 
sity may often require stacking. When 
resorted to, it should be done well; the 
stacks built even and with symmetrical form; 
the hay should be pitched on from different 
sides to preserve upright and even settling; 
for when a stack settles to one side, it nec¬ 
essarily exposes the upper side to rain, and 
often to the loss of a large portion of the stack. 




Fig. 45. Evenly 
Built Stack. 


Fig. 46. Un¬ 
evenly Built 
Stack. 


48 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



Fig. 47.—Hay Cap 


Good stackers repeatedly and regulary pass around the structure, and 
place the hay in uniform forkfuls in regular and circular layers. The cen¬ 
tre is always rounded the highest. In a well built stack the fibers at the 
outside falling downwards prevent any rain from passing in but a few 
inches; one laid up badly may allow the water to enter a foot or more. 
The sprinkling of a peck to half a bushel of salt through each ton of hay 
assists in preserving it, and renders it more palatable. 

Hay caps.— In regions of the country liable to sudden storms, and in 
proximity to cities when hay commands a high 
price, hay caps (fig. 47) are important and valua¬ 
ble, frequently saving much labor, and preserving 
•the quality of the hay. After a little practice in use 
they may be applied in less time than is commonly 
required for trimming the cocks. The following directions for making them 
are given:—“ Take four yards of yard-wide cotton sheeting; sew it together 
so as to make two yards square ; hem the rough edges ; turn up each cor¬ 
ner two or three inches, and sew it strongly; tie in a short strong twine to 
form a loop, and you have a hay cap ready for use. Four sharp wooden 
pins, of hard wood, half an inch in diameter, 18 inches long, to be thrust 
upwards through the loops into the hay at the bottom of the cock, com¬ 
pletes the preparation. 

Wheat.— Cut this as nearly as practicable about one week before it is 
usually dead ripe. Careful experiments show that the grain is heaviest and 
makes the best flour, while a portion, say about one-third, of 
the chaff is yet green, or with green streaks running through it, 
and the straw is brighter and richer. The same crop will of 
course vary some, and the time cannot always be controlled to 
0 . a day, but the above rule should be aimed at. It is always 

of making worth paying something for insurance, and the extra labor 
Wheat Shocks, required for putting up good, well capped shocks, in which 
the grain may stand until thoroughly dry, is a very profitable premium to 
* pay. Seven sheaves form a good size—the caps should 
be bound very tightly near the buts, and the straw broken 
down all around before placing it. Practice will enable a 
hand to shock very rapidly. Hay caps, made of cotton, 
form an excellent covering for wheat, when they can be had. 
It is necessary, in every grain field, to cut certain por- 
W tions by hand ; for this purpose one of the best implements 
Fig. 49-Flanders * s a Grain Cradle (fig. 49), which is easily adjusted by 
Grain Cradle, screws and wires. 

Timothy seed. —Select the best portions of timothy meadows for seed, 
pulling out any weeds or foul stuff which may be found in it. 





THE FARM. 


49 


Sow buckwheat during the present month. The ground should have 
been previously well prepared for it, and rendered clean and mellow. The 
failure of this crop is often owing to the imperfect manner in which it is 
put in. 

Cutting timber.— The best season for cutting timber has caused much 
discussion; but full experiments have shown that it always lasts longest 
when most rapidly seasoned; this is more especially the case with all the 
soft and less durable kinds of timber. Basswood rails cut and split at mid¬ 
summer, with the bark immediately peeled from the wood, will dry rapidly, 
and become durable and hard, like horn; cut in winter or spring, it dries 
slowly, generally becomes sap-rotten, and is of little value. 

Orchards. —These, if young, should be kept well cultivated throughout 
summer, either in low, hoed crops, or if in mellow soil, without crops. This 
treatment is most important for peach trees, which will grow at least ten 
times as fast as when their cultivation is neglected; apples three or four 
times as fast. Newly set cherry trees often die during the heat of mid¬ 
summer, which is easily prevented by a wide and thick mulching placed 
around them. Watering young trees, at this time, usually does more harm 
than good, by merely crusting the surface without moistening the roots, 
and at best affording but an irregular and temporary supply. If the sur¬ 
face of the soil is kept mellow it will preserve moisture enough in the earth, 
and the rapid growth of the tree will render water unnecessary. The black- 
knot, which so often disfigures and destroys plum trees, may be kept off by 
watching and constantly cutting it away on its first appearance. 

Weeds. —The busy labors of July are apt to cause a neglect of weeds; 
and farmers who have kept their hoed crops clean until now, frequently 
neglect them, and they become foul. One thing that is false economy, is 
to permit this, for it would certainly pay to engage a little more labor in 
destroying these weeds so that they may not seed the whole land for 
another year. 

WORK FOR AUGUST— Harvesting. —In the far North, where this 
work is not yet completed, the reader is referred to the directions for July. 
Oats, however, in many places yet remain to be cut. This should be done 
while the straw is yet slightly green—the straw will be more valuable, and 
the grain not shell out as when fully ripe. The gleanings of all grain fields 
may be secured with a horse rake. 

Stubble ground. —To destroy the seeds of weeds, harrow all stubble 
ground as soon as the harvest has been secured, or pigs have eaten the 
gleanings—the first rain will then cause all seeds to germinate, and the 
next plowing will turn under the green crop as manure. 

Harvest tools. —These are often neglected, and suffered to remain weeks 

3 


So 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


exposed to the weather, to their serious injury, by the rusting of metal and 
the decay of wood. Let them all be carefully housed, after having been 
thoroughly cleaned, and the bright metal parts rubbed slightly with lard-oil 
or melted grafting wax. 

Seed wheat. - In order to keep up the highest quality or to improve the 
seed of wheat, select the very best portions of the field, and exclude the 
seeds of every weed, and especially of that notorious intruder, “chess;” 
many careful farmers, by continued attention for years, have succeeded in 
entirely eradicating chess from their farms. To improve the quality of seed 
wheat, the largest and finest heads may be selected by hand; the process 
repeated year after year will give very encouraging results, a half day spent 
in thus selecting the best heads will furnish a considerable amount, and all 
weeds may thus be kept out. The best winnowing machines may also be 
used for this purpose, separating the largest, best and earliest ripening 
grain from the rest. 

. Weeds. —This is the season of the year when many weeds ripen and 
scatter their seeds. A day’s work now properly applied, may therefore save 
a half dozen days’ labor another season. Clear all the weeds out of com 
and potato fields, root crops and gardens. Briers cut during this month 
will be severely checked in growth, and sometimes destroyed. Plow in 
deeply the ox-eye daisy; dig up all scattered plants which appear before 
winter, and follow next year with a hoed crop. 

Draining. —On lands which were too wet to underdrain last spring, the 
work may now be done to advantage. Muck swamps, which may be 
reclaimed and brought into cultivation, or which may afford muck for com¬ 
post heaps, should now be thoroughly underdrained. The muck for ma¬ 
nure should be thrown out and formed into large, well shaped heaps, and 
they will become dry in the course of a few months. To prevent rains 
from soaking these heaps, they may be neatly covered with boards or thatchj 
or if even made with a smooth sloping top, beaten hard with a spade, much 
of the rain will be thrown off from the surface. The disappointment which 
many meet with in the use of muck with manure, is owing to the amount of 
water which it already contains, preventing the absorption of the liquid 
parts of the manure. Wet muck is usually about nine-tenths water; and if 
rendered perfectly dry, will therefore absorb about nine times its own weight 
of liquid manure; hence the importance of using it in yards or manure 
heaps as dry as possible. 

Manuring wheat.— In most of our best wheat regions, unless the soil 
is already quite rich, the most effective use of manure is as a top-dressing 
after the land is plowed. It has often increased the crop eight or ten bush¬ 
els per acre, and sometimes given a good yield of the Mediterranean vari- 


THE FARM. 


51 


ety where the winter has nearly destroyed undressed fields. The manure 
for this purpose should be fine or well rotted and well broken by harrowing. 
To prevent the manure wagons from hardening the plowed soil, it is a good 
way to plow and then dress a strip on the further side of the field, and then 
repeat the process on successive strips till the whole is completed. If the 
soil is very dry, bring the moist portions up by deep plowing, and drill 
in immediately. 

Stacks and straw.— Every farmer, where practicable, should provide 
barn room for all his hay and straw; but where stacks become necessary, 
much may be done for securing their contents in good condition by retop¬ 
ping them. A load of straw neatly placed upon the top of a large hay¬ 
stack, and neatly raked downwards, or what is better, a thatched top, would 
be of great benefit. 

Farmers who have ample barn room, with their grain safe from rats, and 
who are not compelled to hurry it early into market, will do best to leave 
their threshing until winter. A small machine, driven by a two-horse end¬ 
less chain power, will enable them to go through the work at that time with 
little or no additional help for attendance. The straw being fresh will be 
preferred by animals ; where, however, threshing is done now, care should 
be taken to secure straw in good stacks, protected from the weather. Good, 
well preserved straw will assist much in wintering animals, and if fed in con¬ 
nection with a small portion of grain, or meal, may bring them through in 
good condition, more cheaply than if fed on hay alone. The daily use of a 
portion of straw as litter will help toward the manufacture of a large 
amount of manure. The straw should therefore be placed where it is 
easily accessible at all times. The stacks or ricks should therefore be as 
carefully built as stacks for hay. 

Fattening animals. —Feeding these should be commenced early in the 
season—the same amount of food will go much further now than in cold 
weather; late summer apples may be fed to swine. Select and purchase 
all needed stock. 

Meadows. —These should be now cleaned of all bushes, rocks, stones 
and other rubbish, which may interfere with the mowing machine another 
season. 

Fences and stone walls. —Farmers who have loose stones, or quar¬ 
ries, may be furnished with the best of all barriers in the shape of good 
stone walls. A few weeks spent each year will after a time furnish the farm. 
The great leading requisite, to prevent the frost from ultimately throwing 
them over, is to set them in trenches. These trenches should be as wide 
as the bottom of the wall, and deep enough to be below frost—say from a 
foot to eighteen inches these trenches may be filled with such small stones 


52 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


as cannot be used in the wall; large ones will not answer. The trenches 
should never become filled with water. Walls built upon the surface of the 
ground, no matter how well built and how perfect the blocks may be, will 
soon become distorted by heaving, and be ultimately overthrown by frost. 
Where the stone are not good for building, the wall may be bound together 
by strong cross-ties of durable wood, placed about half way up, or at two 
or three different distances up—cut the right length with a saw, and split 
thin, and two or three inches wide. In such cases, or where stone is not 
abundant, half-wall may be built, capped with two rails, supported by stakes. 

Sowing timothy seed. —The great point is to have good, clean crops. 
The best portion of the meadow should be selected, and all foul weeds pre¬ 
viously cleaned by hand. It is usually cut too late, or when the seed shells. 
The best time is when most of the heads have become brown. It is unim¬ 
portant how it is cut, provided it is taken in before the seed wastes, and is 
not allowed to heat or mold. It may be cradled at some height, the rest 
being afterwards cut with a mowing machine, or it may be cut with a hand- 
scythe—narrow swathes and a little practice enabling the workman to throw 
the heads all one way. It will usually be dry enough to bind in a day or two. 

WORK FOR SEPTEMBER— Sowing wheat.— The preparation of 
ground for wheat is an important labor for this month. The ground should be 
made mellow, that the moisture may be preserved, and the seed vegetate 
freely. It should be clear from weeds and their seed, that the crop may 
not be choked, the product rendered foul or impure, nor the subsequent 
grass crop diminished in value. Experience only will teach the farmer the 
proper degree of fertility—there are very few farms, however, where the 
addition of fine manure will not be advantageous. An excellent mode of 
managing it is the top-dressing given in the directions for work for August. 
This top-dressing also assists the germination of grass seed, thus affording 
the advantages of thick seeding, and insuring a vigorous growth of the 
plants. Timothy seed sown with the wheat, or, immediately after, usually 
produces too strong a growth, and lessens the wheat crop, as well as inter¬ 
feres with the harvesting; it is best, therefore, to sow it about a fortnight 
afterwards, and the clover as early as possible the following spring. This 
top dressing also protects the surface of heavy soils, and lessens the tend¬ 
ency to freeze out. Sowing wheat early produces stronger plants and a 
better crop, but does not cause earlier ripening of the grain. The drill 
seeding, if properly performed, gives the best crops, often from 3 to 5 
bushels more per acre—but much drill seeding is improperly performed, 
the seeds being deposited too deep—an inch and a half on heavy soils, and 
two inches in light ones, are better than any greater depth; if the soil is 
moist enough, a less depth is better. Any farmer may satisfy himself on 


THE FARM. 


53 


this point, and gain valuable practical information, by a few measured 
experiments. Some who have set their drills much too deep, have had 
lighter crops than with ordinary broadcast sowing, and have hastily 
denounced all machines of the kind. Seed wheat that is infected with 
smut may be purified by washing in brine and then sprinkling and stirring 
in powdered slaked lime. 

Seed corn.— Improved varieties always tend to run backwards; the 
farmer should therefore constantly select the best ears for seed; this should 
be a regular yearly business, and if faithfully carried out, will give an 
increase of several bushels per acre, in the long run. 

Swine. —The falling apples in orchards may now be fed to swine, and in 
connection with richer and drier food, wall cause them to fatten rapidly. 
Winter apple trees are often allowed to over-bear, and the removal of a 
portion of the crop, for feeding these animals, will improve the remainder. 
No tree should ever bear heavy enough to need propping. The yards and 
apartments in which swine are kept, should be scrupulously clean, and ren¬ 
dered comfortable by dry litter. Experiments have shown that they fatten 
faster under these circumstances. Great pains should be taken to feed 
them with clock-work regularity, and not to give so much at a time that 
some will be left, and a distaste for food produced; neither should they 
ever be allowed to squeal off their flesh by waiting impatiently. 

Butter. —This is usually the best month for the manufacture of butter; 
the great leading requisites for success in which are, first, the most impor¬ 
tant, good, sweet, rich, abundant pasture; secondly, good cows; thirdly, 
perfect cleanliness in the dairy house, in all the vessels used in it, and in 
the air which surrounds it; fourthly, general and skillful management 
throughout. Under the latter head may be mentioned shallow pans or 
shallow milk in the pans, proper temperature of the cream, and working 
out all the buttermilk. See the full directions elsewhere. 

Top-dressing meadows. —The best mode of manuring meadows is 
thoroughly enriching the soil by manure applied to the crops which pre¬ 
cede laying down. But scarcely inferior, and perhaps equal to this treat¬ 
ment, on clayey soils, is autumn top-dressing. The manure for this pur¬ 
pose should be broken fine, and very evenly spread. Harrowing, some 
weeks after the application of the manure, will often be useful where the 
grass is short. The manure, thus applied, causes a strong autumn growth, 
enriches the surface soil by the washing in of the autumn rains, and both 
the manure and the increase of grass protect the roots during winter, and 
give an early growth in the spring. 

General hints. —There are a large number of farm operations which 
should not be forgotten during the present month. The erection of suita- 


54 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


ble buildings for sheltering domestic animals the coming winter, is a very- 
important one; drain bogs when dry enough; clean meadows of all scat¬ 
tered stones and rubbish; see that root crops are kept clear of weeds; 
examine and repair all fences; soil and feed cows if the pastures are short; 
grub up bushes and briers; cut up straggling thistles in pastures; pull up 
scattered mulleins by roadsides; harvest buckwheat as soon as it ripens; 
clean and ventilate cellars on rainy days. Attend agricultural exhibitions 
and acquire all the new valuable hints which such opportunities afford. 

Cutting up corn.— Much labor is saved, by taking no unnecessary steps; 

this is the reason that some men accomplish more than 
others with equal exertion. The remark applies particu¬ 
larly to cutting up corn—where a regular system will save 
many steps. If the corn is of large variety, or in large 
hills, twenty-five hills will make one 
shock, (fig. 50) and the inexperienced 
workman may take three hills at a 
Fig. 50. Mode of time, each successive three being des- 

hand"! hiUsto each ignated by figures in the accompanying 
Shock. cut, the dotted lines connecting the 

three smaller varieties of corn, in smaller hills, will 
enable the expert laborer to take six hills at a time, and 


i _n 

\ n 


&— ^ (©} 


til 



Fig. 5 1 - 
Cutting 


Mode of 
up Corn, 


to form a large shock of forty-nine hills (fig. 51) ; com- forming a Shock of 
mencing at a, he takes the first three as a beginning; 49 hi Us. 
next at ft, he takes six; at c , the next six, and so on, the dotted lines show¬ 
ing his footsteps. A larger armful may be taken by placing the arm above 
and before the hill, instead of behind it. 

The common mode in cutting is to place the shock around a central uncut 
hill, which occasions some inconvenience in husking, to obviate which the 
corn horse is used. It consists of a pole about twelve feet in length, and 
nearly as large as a common wagon tongue. 

One mode of constructing it (shown in 
65. 52) is by placing the legs at the end 
of the pole, the other end resting on the 
ground. Two or three feet back of the legs a 
admitting loosely a rod four or five feet long. The com when cut is placed 
in the four corners made by the rod and pole, and when the shock is finished, 
the rod is pulled out and the pole drawn backward. 

Stone walls. —At the present season, between harvesting and the secur¬ 
ing of autumn crops, it is an excellent time to draw stone, and construct 
stone walls or fences. The durability of a wall depends greatly on the 
manner in which it is built. The best mode should therefore be well under- 



Corn Horse used in con¬ 
structing shocks. 

horizontal hole is bored. 







THE FARM. 


55 


stood. The most important of all requisites is to build the wall in a 
trench, dug to a depth corresponding to the depth to which the soil freezes* 
This trench should be compactly filled with small rounded stone, bro¬ 
ken stone, or with coarse clean gravel, according to circumstances, or sup¬ 
plies at hand. If the soil is compact, this trench should have a drainage, 
or outlet. On these small stones the wall is erected. It often happens that 
an under drain three feet deep, filled to the surface with small stone, may 
serve as a good foundation for the wall; but unless the soil is tenacious, and 
especially if inclining to the nature of quicksand, it will be liable to work 
into the ditch at the sides and toward the top, unless well shielded with a 
lining of flat stones or of gravel. A wall with such a base as this will 
remain unmoved by frost for ages; while one placed merely on the surface 
will rise and fall at every freezing and thawing, the stones will become grad¬ 
ually displaced, and before many years will totter and fall. 

The best stones are such as are flat or in square blocks. But a sub¬ 
stantial wall may be made of round or cobble stones, if they are solidly 
laid, and cross-ties of wood are employed. 

The lower series of these ties should be near 
the bottom or about a foot higher, the second, 
two thirds of the way to the top, or if the stones 
are nearly round, three or four may be placed 
A . lg at different heights. They are all sawed of ^s’ecticmof SS 

Section of Well distinct lengths for this purpose, and should be Badly Built 

Built Wall. split, so as to be about half an inch thick, and Wall ‘ 
two or three inches wide. If made of durable wood they will last an age, 
as they are less exposed than fence rails, being covered by the stone, and 
nearly always dry. 

Breaking joints. —This is of great importance in laying up the wall. 
If well attended to, 
makes it inconceiv¬ 
ably stronger. The 
accompanying fi g - 

joints broken. ures (55 And 56) Fig. 56.—Side view of wall badly 
clearly explain themselves, and show the laid, or with joints not broken. 

difference between breaking thejoints and the improper forming of vertical 
seams, presenting many chances for the wall to fall apart. 

After the wall is built, the earth should be raised in a moderate slope, 
about half a foot against the sides, to throw off water, and as an addi¬ 
tional protection to the foundation against frost. 

Sometimes posts are set in the walls for receiving these two top rails; 
they present a neater appearance, but are apt to crowd the stones apart, 




Fig. 55.—Side view of wall 

















brand’s cyclopedia. 


56 

and throw the wall down. A good stone wall is the most perfect of all farm 
fences, and well-built of large block stones will last for ages. 

Where stone are good and abundant, the wall may be built four and a 

half feet high, which will serve as a complete 
fence. In other cases, a half-wall will be found 
more convenient, being built two and a half 
to three feet high, and finished by first lay¬ 
ing a rail on the top, then crossing stakes, 
Fig. 57. Fig. 58. and finally a rider. [Fig. 57.—End view of 

half-wall, on trench. Fig. 58.—End view of wall with wooden cross-ties.] 
WORK FOR OCTOBER— Harvesting buckwheat.— Some judgment 
is needed in selecting the best time, as the grain ripens successively. When 
cut, which should be while the dew is on, to prevent shelling, it should be 
placed immediately in stacks, where it will cure better than to lie in the 
swath, and not be in danger of becoming soiled. The stacks should be 
rather large, so as to stand well. A small band should be placed around 
the top. Thus secured, the straw dries safely and readily. 

Husking corn.— All the different husking machines .have so far amounted 
to nothing, for the reason that nearly as much time is required to break the 
unhusked corn from the stalk as to break it out of the husks. Farmers 
must therefore for the present depend on hand husking. Some huskers 
will work three times as fast as others, chiefly by having everything close at 
hand. While an awkward laborer is picking up a stalk, pulling off the husk 
and ear, and then turning around to lay the stalk in a pile, a skillful work¬ 
man will have husked half a dozen ears. 

Winter apples.— These should be all carefully hand-picked to pre¬ 
vent bruising. Light ladders should be provided, and great caution be 
exercised not to bruise any portion of the tree. Baskets, provided with 
hooks for hanging on the limbs, is a common and good way, 
but a better and more expiditious one is to take 
a common, clean grain bag, and place a stick, 
sharpened at each end, about twelve inches long, 
so as to prop the mouth open, leaving a triangu¬ 
lar opening for the reception of apples as fast as 
picked with both hands. Tie the upper and 
lower corners together by placing a pebble in the 
lower corner, so as to form a sort of button, and 
Fig. 59. then tying the bag strings closely above it. The Fl S- 6o * 
bag is then slung over the shoulder, as shown in fig. 59. A piece of stiff 
leather buttoned on the shoulder serves to protect it from the weight of the 
bag. Portions of the tree which cannot be reached with an ordinary lad- 





THE FARM. 


5 7 


der, may be gathered by the standing ladder, (fig. 60.) Fruit on the ends 
of long and tall branches may be gathered by means of the fruit picker, 
shown in the annexed figure, (61.) It consists 
of a piece of stiff wire about two feet long, bent 
into the form shown at a ; the two ends are then 
Fig. 61.— Fruit Picker. thrust through gimlet holes in the end of a pole; 

a small bag, large enough to hold half a dozen apples, is then sewed to the 
wire. This completes the instrument. The narrow part of the wire assists 
in removing the stem from the branch. A picker of this kind is especially 
valuable in gathering any high priced fruit, such as pears, which would 
otherwise be bruised and spoiled. As some fruit, such as autumn varieties, 
must necessarily fall, the ground of orchards, or beneath trees, should 
always be kept smooth, and as free from stones as possible. 

Vinegar maybe made from cider by adding two quarts of molasses to 
each barrel of cider, and exposing it to the warm sunshine and air. 

New corn may be prepared for early grinding by suspending it in a 
coarse bag near the ceiling of any warm room where a fire is kept. 

Planting new orchards.— The ground should be well prepared before¬ 
hand for new orchards, whether the trees are set out in autumn or spring. 
Unless the soil is already quite rich enough, its fertility should he increased 
by manure previously applied, or to previous crops; or it may be enriched 
after the trees are set out, by autumn top dressing for working under in 
spring. The soil should also be drained and subsoiled, or deeply plowed. 

Stubble ground. —All stubble ground should be well harrowed to start 
the weeds, which may be turned under the present autumn or next spring. 

Painting buildings. —This is the best season of the year for out-door 
painting, when the sun will not dry the paint powder, but it will form a hard, 
durable coat. / 

Fattening animals. —The feeding of all domestic animals for fattening 
should be carefully and regularly continued during the present month. Reg¬ 
ularity as to time is of great importance—the animal’s appetite is an accu¬ 
rate chronometer, and unusual delay is certain to result in a waste of flesh. 
It is important to attend to all their comforts—a great secret of success with 
skillful managers. Especially avoid waste, dirt and surfeit. Some of the 
best farmers are very careful to commence foddering cattle early, or as soon 
as frost affects the grass—that being regarded as the most critical period in 
the year, and when cattle fall away most readily, or contract fatal diseases. 

WORK FOR NOVEMBER.—During this month autumn work must be 
closed up, and preparations made for winter. 

Roots.—R uta bagas and other root crops should be harvested early in 
the month, or one freezing night may destroy them. A special provision 




S3 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


should be made for the preservation of ruta bagas in masses to prevent their 
heating and spoiling. If buried out of doors they should be in a long pile, 
with frequent ventilating wisps of straw at the top ; if stored in cellars they 
should be placed on a wooden grate or rack, so that the air may frequently 
pass under and up through them. All roots, whether turnips, beets or car¬ 
rots, should be packed away clean and dry. 

Animals. —Keep all fattening animals comfortable, dry and warm. Feed 
them regularly, frequently, and in moderate quantities. Do not try to econ¬ 
omize by giving them foul or musty food. Provide places where they can 
obtain pure water at pleasure, throughout the winter. Do not depend on 
pasture, especially after the frost has dried it, but give fodder with a small, 
regular supply of meal. Many cattle are injured and badly fitted for win¬ 
ter by compelling them to live on pasture alone late in autumn. When 
pumpkins are abundant, pains should be taken to keep them well and to 
prevent their freezing. When frozen hard like stone, or after they have 
thawed and become rotten, they are poor food. They may be placed in 
large heaps in a sheltered place—will give cattle a fair start into winter. 

Grain fields. —Where wheat-fields have not been top-dressed with 
manure, as mentioned in the directions for September, a thin dressing of 
fine manure can be still supplied. It will serve to protect against winter- 
killing, and make a fine rich surface for the clover seed in spring. Provide 
surface drains wherever they will be needed, and shovel out the loose earth, 
that the water may run freely. 

Manure.— All the manure which can be found on the premises, or 
scraped up in the yard, should be spread before winter. Applied to grass 
lands, whether for pastures, meadows, or for turning under to be planted 
with corn, it will be worth twice as much as to be applied next spring. In 
some cases an increase of twenty-five bushels of corn per acre has resulted 
from thus manuring the soil in autumn, over a spring application. 

Fall plowing. —It will greatly assist the labors of next spring, in plant¬ 
ing and sowing early, to do as much plowing late in autumn as practicable. 
In order that there may be a free drainage, the furrows should run directly 
up and down hill, by the shortest slope; if plowed across, the furrows will 
become filled, and the land soaked with water. It may be well to shovel 
the loose earth out of the dead furrows for the same purpose. If the 
ground is wet or undrained, plow narrow lands. This treatment will enable 
the farmer to work his land early in the spring. 

Shelter and stables. —Prepare stables and sheds for winter, securing 
loose boards, making all necessary repairs, clearing away rubbish, and ren¬ 
dering the whole clean and comfortable. 

General hints. —Save cornstalks from rain—for every farmer knows 


THE FARM. 


59 


well the difference between fine, green, fresh fodder, and that which is wet, 

f mouldy, and half rotten. Finish under-draining. Keep cellars 
clean and neat. Shelter all tools, and apply a thin coating of 
lard and resin to such parts as might become rusted. Draw 
leaves from the woods for littering stables and converting to 
manure—nothing is better than dry leaves for bedding animals 
on imperfect floors, as they entirely exclude the cold currents 
Fig. 62. Mode which would pass through straw. 

of banking up Orchards. —Transplant hardy trees—in windy places stake 
from mice° tGCt them against the wind. Where danger is feared from mice, all 
damage may be avoided by a small mound of compact earth a foot high, 
around each tree, beaten smooth with the spade (fig 62). A mouse will 
never ascend a smooth bank of bare earth under snow; and, if trees are 
heeled in for winter, they may be secured from mice by observing the same 
precaution. It often happens that trees may be procured best in autumn, 
where they are to be brought long distances, or where it is desirable to 
make the best selection from nurseries. In such cases 
it is often more convenient to set them out the follow¬ 
ing spring. In heeling them in, select a dry, clean, 
mellow piece of ground, with no grass near to invite 
mice; dig a wide trench, lay in the roots sloping, (fig. 63,) and cover them 
and half the stems with fine mellow earth; fill in carefully 
and solid all the interstices among the roots; doing this 
work imperfectly often results in loss—if well performed, 
it never can. If much danger is feared from mice, it is 
better to place the trees erect in the trench (fig. 64,) and 
Fig. 64. round up the whole surface about them; but, being more 
exposed in this position, they should be placed in a more sheltered situa¬ 
tion from the winds. 

WORK FOR DECEMBER.—The labors of the season having been 
devoted to the raising of crops, the period for their consumption has now 
arrived. As it is important on the score of economy to raise heavy crops, 
so it is equally important now to study the most economical modes of 
feeding. 1st. The first point of economy is to prevent loss by good and 
comfortable shelter, exposure to freezing winds not only injures the growth 
and thrift of animals, but requires a greater amount of food to maintain 
animal heat. Sometimes the loss of animals, by death alone, toward spring, 
is greater than the cost of ample shelter. 2d. The second is to feed regu¬ 
larly, that no loss of flesh may be occasioned by impatient fretting. 3d. 
The third is to give the food in the best condition. Hay and stalks should 
be bright and not musty. Cornstalks will go much farther if cut before 




Fig. 63. 





6o 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


feeding; but they should be cut very short, or less than a quarter of an 
inch in length, so as to be fine like chaff; this can only be accomplished 
by horse-power; it rarely or never pays to cut fodder by hand. Grain 
should be ground whenever practicable, for animal of whatever kind. 

Straw should be carefully saved, even when raised in large quantities, as 
it has so many uses. It may be employed largely in feeding animals, if a 
little grain or meal is fed to them regularly at the same time. It may be 
largely used as a litter, and converted into manure. It forms an excellent 
covering for large heaps of roots in winter, whether in root cellars or more 
exposed. It maybe employed as a cover for temporary sheds for protect¬ 
ing cattle and sheep. In most cases the best way to manage straw is to 
thresh the grain as the straw is needed through winter, by means of a two 
horse endless chain power, which requires but few hands in attendance. 
If threshed with a larger machine, care should be taken to save the straw 
from injury; if bound in bundles as it is threshed, it may be more readily 
handled. The best way to do this is to twist previously a large quantity of 
straw bands, which may be done by means of the hook 
and handle shown in fig. 65, the operator taking the 

Fig. 05._Hook for twist- handlein the right hand, holding the wooden portion 

ing straw bands. of the hook in his left, and twisting as he walks back¬ 
wards; the hook is easily made by bending stout wire, or the twisting maybe 
more rapidly performed by attaching a hook to the pinion of a fanning 
mill. These bands, if twisted of slightly moist oat straw, will retain their twist 
as soon as dry, and may be cut up into any desired length. When the 
threshing is performed, place a straw band so that the straw may fall upon 
it, drawing it into a compact heap, and when large enough, bind it. As 
soon as the binding is commenced, let a second hand place another band, 
and proceed as the first has done. In this way two men will bind all the 
straw that is thrown out of the largest sized machine. 

Ventilation. —This is important for all animals, horses, cattle or swine. 
Foul air, drawn into the lungs, cannot fail to injure its delicate coatings and 
destroy, more or less, the health of the animal. Many farmers have decided 
against stables, because of the injury from dirt and bad air. Keep them 
well littered at all times, and let them breathe a pure air, and a different 
report will be made. But another oppoiste evil must be also avoided. 
Cold currents of air, sweeping through cracks, are sometimes nearly as bad 
as open exposure, and for this reason some farmers have concluded that 
exposure is best, after all. 

Sheep.— Large flocks should be separated into portions of about 50 each, 
in separate pens in the shed, placing the stronger in one pen, the weaker in 
another, each portion being as nearly equal in strength and vigor as possi- 



THE FARM. 


61 


ble. Sheep always do best if fed some grain through the winter, commenc¬ 
ing •with a very small quantity at first and gradually increasing as the winter 
advances. Caution in beginning to feed lambs in small quantities is partic¬ 
ularly important. An average of half a pint of corn a day is sufficient for 
full grown sheep—half that for lambs. A good time is to feed them grain 
at noon, and fodder night and morning. 

Colts and young horses do well on straw, with a little grain—an excel¬ 
lent way is to cut oats in the sheaf an inch or two long, and feed the whole, 
grain and straw, together. 

Good water should be provided at all times for all domestic animals, 
and should be supplied to them frequently and regularly, or at their pleas¬ 
ure. Depriving them of drink for a long time, and then allowing them to 
drink too much, is detrimental to the best thrift. 

Manure.— The largest and best stables have a central alley passing 
through them, wide enough for a wagon or horse-cart to pass and carry out 
the daily cleanings of the stalls. Smaller stables may be cleaned by wheel¬ 
ing the manure out daily by hand. There are different modes of managing 
manure in winter—if not very strawy, it may be done at once and spread 
over the fields. On grass land thus treated it will produce a much better 
effect than if applied in spring, the rain soaking the soluble portions well 
into the soil and among the roots; an equally good effect is produced if the 
sod is to be plowed for corn. No fear need be entertained of the manure 
washing away, except in the beds of streams, as the soil, as soon as thawed, 
and especially if of a loamey or clayey nature, instantly absorbs the soluble 
manure. If the manure is quite strawy, it should be placed in large, square 
piles, that it may rot down, and when the central portion is decayed, the 
edges should be cut down with a hay knife and thrown on the top. Manure 
containing little fibre, or litter, should be kept under shelter to prevent waste, 
but coarse and strawy manure should be exposed to rains to hasten decay. 
Muck, which has been shoveled out and dried last summer, may now be 
drawn and applied to yards and manure heaps. 

Feeding racks, to prevent the waste of fodder, should be. provided for 
all animals. Stock should be regularly salted; if they have a consant sup¬ 
ply, they will eat but little at a time. 

Salt troughs for yarded animals are easily made by taking pieces of 
thick slabs, say a foot long, and boring with a large auger or making a mor¬ 
tise nearly through on the rounded side. These poles contain the salt, and 
the troughs lying on the ground cannot be overturned. 

Running out of fodder. —Some farmers seem scarcely to know how 
they will be likely to come out in the spring with a supply of fodder for 
their animals, and know of no better way than guessing. They should be 


62 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


more accurate, and determine by calculation early in wintei what their sup¬ 
plies will be. If they have not kept a record of the number of tons of 
hay, it may be determined with considerable degree of accuracy, by allow 
ing five hundred cubic feet per ton of good, compactly pressed timothy, in 
the lower part of the stack or mow, and six or seven hundred in the upper 
part, or of clover. Then allowing two and a half to three pounds daily to 
each hundred weight of animal, an accurate result may be nearly reached, 
varying in localities where the winter is long or short. 

Manuring in winter. —Where manuring has not already been applied 
by top-dressing, either at the time or subsequent to sowing, it may be done 
now. See description in November work. 

Apples for domestic animals. —Sweet apples are of great value in 
feeding almost any kind of farm animals. Hogs fatten rapidly on them, as 
well as on those that are acid. Cows, fed moderately at the start, on well 
cracked or cut apples, to prevent choking, will increase in milk and improve 
in condition. Apples form an excellent succulent food for horses in win¬ 
ter. Varieties should be specially sought for feeding animals, combining 
hardiness, thriftiness, and great bearing qualities. Among the best now 
known are Codies’ Sweet, Pumpkin Sweet, and Haskell Sweet for autumn, 
and Green Sweet for long keeping. At the West, the Hightop or Sum¬ 
mer Sweet is the best early sort, and the Sweet Pearmain and Sweet 
Romanite for autumn and winter. 

APPLES— Packing in barrels. —When fruit is sold by the quantity, 
barrels are always best for packing, as well for cheapness and strength as 
for the ease with which they may be moved without jolting. Apples will 
keep best if exposed in heaps two or three weeks to open air before bar¬ 
relling—as some of the exterior moisture escapes, and they become less 
liable to decay. The few minutes additional time required to deposit them 
carefully and without dropping them into the barrels, will be many times 
repaid by the fine condition in which the consumer finds them. There 
should always be at least two barrels placed side by side when filling; 
one should be marked “ extra, ” and as the assorting proceeds should 
receive none but the finest specimens; the other only such as are decidedly 
good; all the rest, including those that are bruised, scabby or marked 
with insects, should be rejected for distant market, and used only for home 
purposes, such as stewing, converting into cider, or feeding to domestic 
animals. In well managed orchards, where pruning or thinning the 
branches, thinning the fruit, and proper cultivation have been attended to, 
this third or inferior portion will constitute but a very small part; in other 
orchards, grown up with suckers, weeds and grass, and with tops consisting 
of brush and stunted branches, the labor of selection will be small, for the 
whole crop will be of this third portion. 


THE FARM. 


63 

Apples should be so snugly placed in the barrels that there can be no 
rattling when they are moved. They should, therefore, be slightly shaken 
several times while filling. A little practice will enable any one to do this 
sufficiently without danger of bruising. The upper stratum should be 
made as straight and uniform as practicable, and at such a height that the 
head of the barrel will slightly indent them—the dry wood absorbing the 
moisture and preventing decay. 

A simple contrivance is adopted by packers for placing the head in posi¬ 
tion, and is shown in the annexed sketch. It 
consists of a plank, on which the barrel stands, 
into one end of which is dovetailed an upright 
piece of plank, b , a little higher than the top of 
the barrel. A slot, c, is cut in its upper end, and 
Fig. 66. a pin runs across to receive the end of the lever, 

d , which may be six or eight feet long. A round board is used as a fol¬ 
lower, to be placed upon the head; and across this board is placed a cyl¬ 
indrical piece of wood about three inches in diameter, and flat on the 
lower side, on which the lever is placed. A moderate pressure at the 
end of the lever, and a little practice in its use, will enable the operator to 
bring the head to its position with great ease, precision and accuracy. 

APPLES— Use of. —A profitable way of using surplus apples is feeding 
them to all kinds of domestic animals. Provide a large, dry cellar for 
them, where the temperature will be a little above freezing during the winter, 
and they will keep well. Horses are very fond of them; they are excellent 
for cows, also for sheep and swine, and are about as valuable as carrots and 
other roots. 

ANIMALS— Shelter for. —There is one truth which every farmer who 
ever winters a herd of any kind 
of animals, should fully appre¬ 
ciate—and that is, that “ Shelter 
is cheaper than fodder .” Exposed 
animals will consume a third 
more food, and come out in the 
spring in worse condition. The 
loss of animals by death in win- 

Poorly Sheltered Horse, tering, when suffering from all the 
severities of piercing winters, drifting snows, and cutting 
sleet, is sometimes greater in two or three years than the Sheltered Horse, 
cost of substantial and comfortable buildings for protection; and the loss 
of fodder consumed in any case, would in a few years pay for their erection. 

“ There is one change which I now regret that I had not made sooner 











6 4 


brand’s cyclopedia. 




than I have, as I would thus have had fewer deaths among my flock of 
sheep, more milk from my cows, and my working 
stock in better condi¬ 
tion for spring work. 

I have seen it stated 
on several occasions— 
probably more than 
once in every volume— 

Fig. 69. Sheep wintered with- ^ iat ^ was g reat im- Fig. 70.—Sheep which has 
out shelter. portance to have sheep, been wintered with shelter. 

and other stock, come to the yard or stables on the approach of winter in 
good condition, and that it was bad management and poor economy to 
allow cows, sheep, horses, swine, or any other stock, in fact, to depend wholly 
on the dry, frozen pastures, as long as snow left them accessible. I had read 
more than once that it was almost impossible to get an animal that is poor 
at the beginning of the winter, into any better condition while that season 



Fig. 71.—Appearance of cattle in spring, well wintered under good shelter. 

lasted. But though all these things seemed reasonable, and worthy of being 
attended to in practice, like some other of my neighbors, readers too of 
the same facts and admonitions, I neglected to conform my practice to 
what my judgment approved. This last autumn, however, I resolved to 
to have my stock in the very best condition before winter should set in, 
and by feeding cows and sheep a little before they were let out into the 
fields in the mornings, and a little after coming home at nights, and by 



THE FARM. 


65 



1 



other similar arrangements, I managed to have them all fat, or in a fair 
condition, when the snow came, and though the fear of not having enough 
hay to carry my whole stock through the winter, has made us feed rather 
scantily, they are all in first-rate condition now.” 

Bag-holders.— Farmers and others who handle much grain, and who 
cart off many hundred bushels annually, should by all means provide them¬ 
selves with a simple stand to hold each bag while it is filled with the scoop 
or shovel, instead of the costly practice of taking the time of a man or 
boy to do the work. Thsee bag-holders are made in various ways. 
One mode is to drive a few sharp nails into the top of a light bar¬ 
rel open at both ends; hitch the top 
\J || of the bag on these nails while it hangs 

within the barrel, resting on the floor with 
its mouth open ready for filling. When 
filled, it is tied and the barrel lifted off. A 
much superior way is to provide a board 

P ig. 72. P ig. 73. Fig. 74. about a foot wide, and eighteen inches long 
(fig. 72) which serves as a base, on which the bag stands. [Fig. 72.—Bag- 
holder of forked boards. Fig. 73.—Forked stick bag-holder. Fig. 74.— 
Board bag-holder]. Uprights or standards with sharp points at the top 
hold the bag open until it is filled. These uprights are variously constructed. 
One mode is to take a piece of two inch plank for the bottom, and bore 
two holes, or one at each comer on the same side, and insert upright or 
forked sticks firmly into these holes, as shown in fig. 73; another mode is to 
nail thin boards on the opposite sides of the plank base, sowing a fork in 
the top of each, so as to form sharp points for holding the mouth of the 
bag. If these boards are so nailed on to the base that they shall spread a 
little towards the top, and being thin enough to have some spring to them, 
they may be slightly bent inward when the bag is attached, and springing 
out again will hold it the more firmly. One of the best, firmest and most 
convenient supports, admitting the ready removal of the filled bag, is rep¬ 
resented in fig. 74. It has a board bottom, on two corners of which up¬ 
right board are nailed as shown in the cut, connected and braced by a hori¬ 
zontal board at the top. Through this board are driven nails, projecting 
upwards and to which the bag is attached. This support is light and the 
uprights being braced, are not easily broken off. By first measuring the 
height of a full bag, the right dimensions maybe obtained. (The cut is 
defective in not showing the top board cut away enough to let in the bag 
sufficiently.) 

BARLEY —Culture of. —In the Northern States it commonly follows 
com in rotation, and precedes wheat—or it may be followed by clover, for 

4 













66 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


meadow or pasture. One of the important requisites is a good fertile soil. 
If the corn has been well manured, that will be sufficient, but if not, the 
best way is to spread the manure on the land in autumn or winter, that the 
enriching parts may become diffused by soaking into the soil. A wet soil 
will not answer, and if rather light or inclining to sandy, it may be plowed 
in autumn, and only stirred with a two-horse cultivator in spring, as it is 
important to sow early. But it is better to defer the sowing a little rather 
than to sow on a hard or wet or badly pulverized piece of ground. No crop 
needs a more thorough mellowing of the soil, but it need not be worked 
deep, as the roots are rather shallow. If'not possessing a natural under¬ 
drainage, it should be thoroughly underdrained, if practicable; but in the 
absence of this, it is important to provide now, in autumn, plowed and 
cleaned channels to carry off all the surface water. This will facilitate the 
early working of the soil in spring. As to varieties, the common two-rowed 
is most uniformly successful. About two and a half bushels per acre is 
the common amount of seed. It does best, and ripens most uniformly, if 
put in with a drill, about an inch and a half deep. 

Two modes of harvesting are adopted—one, to cut like wheat, bind in 
bundles and place in shocks; ajid the other, and most common, to cut 
with a machine and rake like hay, and throw into cocks. It is important 
that it be not subjected to rains, as they spoil the whiteness of the grain 
and lessen its market value. The use of the wooden barley forks, sold at 
the agricultural warehouses, facilitates harvesting. 

BEEF—How to make cheap.— Many farmers are adopting the mode of 
disposing of their young animals for beef before passing through the second 
winter, provided they are fine, well-grown animals, and in this way they 
have the growth of two summers and but one winter. A correspondent of 
an agricultural paper gives the following mode adopted by him: “ My 
stock for the last three years has consisted of good Durham grades, and I 
have just killed my first young bullock, aged 20J months, and fed as fol¬ 
lows :—For the first three weeks he got the mother’s milk pure ; for the 
next four months plenty of good skimmed milk, good clover pasture, and 
nothing else. At the first approach of winter he was taken up, warmly 
housed, and fed good hay, and 100 bushels carrots, and 12 bushels oats, 
ground, at 20 cents. This spring he was turned out to good pasture, and 
got nothing else till Nov. 18th, when he was fit for the butcher; but not 
wishing to kill him till the weather set in cold, I shut him up to the nth of 
December, and fed him hay and meal, at which date he was slaughtered 
and weighed, the four quarters, 688 lbs, the meat of a first-rate quality 
and very fat. By this plan of killing early beef I get rid, to a great extent, 
of one great bugbear, the long winter. 


THE FARM. 


6/ 



CARRIAGES— Care of.— Those who would keep their buggies and 
carriages in good order, should place a wrench on every nut at least once 
a month. This will save nuts, save bolts, and prevent rattling, and wear 
and tear. 

BUSHES— Hook for pulling up. —Since the general adoption of under¬ 
draining for wet, boggy or bushy land, it has become an object to remove 

easily and rapidly the roots of the bushes 
and brakes which infest such land. Doing 
the work by hand is too costly and laborious. 
It may be done by horse power, by means Of 
the instrument figured on the annexed cut. 
The centre wheels, A, A, are light, and so 
Fig. 75.—Brake Puller. placed that the puller balances on their axle- 
tree, in such a way that the heaviest part rests on the cast iron roller, B ; 
the man who holds the handle, C, walks over the land as if he were plow¬ 
ing, and whenever he meets a shrub or brush which is to be removed, he 
presses on the handles and the points of the puller enter the ground 
behind the roots, while the pulling of the team will lift the whole forepart 
of the implement up till the desired extraction is accomplished. 

Bob-sled for logging. —D. B. Raymond furnishes an agricultural paper 
with a detailed account of a sled which he has used for years in drawing 

logs out of the woods, and which 
will turn short comers, and with 
which a team will start a load and 
Fig. 76.—Chain Bob-Sleds. draw one-fourth more than with 

any other sled. We have not space to give all the details of construction, 
but merely point out the leading peculiarities, which will enable those 
familiar with coarse timber-bobs to construct one. 

The tongue is not set stiff, but is fastened to the nose-piece with two 
clevises—one on the tongue, and one on the cross-piece, making a sort of 
universal joint, permitting it to turn at right angles, and allowing the team 
to turn half around without moving the load, and to clear trees and 
logs. The draft-chains being entirely independent of the tongue, the latter 
may be made light. If used much on the road, it should be heavier and 
set stiff. 

The bobs are coupled together with a forked cable chain in place of a 
reach, with a grab hook on each end, and a ring in the centre. This ring is 
put into a clevis at the rear end of the saddle-plank of the front bob, the 
other ends of the chain to rings on the nose of the rear bob. The rings 
are large enough for the chain to double through, so as to let them out or 
draw them together, and by which logs of any length from 8 to 25 feet may 








68 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



Fig- 77 - —Sled Shoe and 
Bolster. 


be placed equally on both. The rings, properly put on, cannot catch a 
tree or brush ; and the chains playing up and down, permit the rear bob 
to go over the roughest ground, logs or brush. 

The shoes of the runners are made of the hardest dry wood, sawed 
slightly across the grain, so as to wear with it. 

They will last a whole winter. The lower figure in 
fig. 77 shows how they are put on. The bolster of 
the rear bob is 4 by 5 inches. The bolt heads 
which fasten it should be “ let in,” so as to be out 
of the way. The bolster of the forward bob is shown in the upper figure of 
of fig 77, and has rings to bind the load. The saddle-plank, on the front 
bob, should be 2J inches thick and a foot wide, to support the king-bolt 
and whole load. 

CLOD-CRUSHER —Use of. —A correspondent states in the Boston 
Cultivator , that the following course is successfully pursued in Scotland 
with the clod-crusher: It is of course only used on heavy clay lands, 
which on plowing break up into large clods, and the land must be compar¬ 
atively free from stone. Tbe soil having been plowed, and left in large clods, 
a grubber is passed over the whole, loosening up the clods and leaving 
them at the surface. The grubber, as our readers may be aware, is like a 
harrow or cultivator, with long hooked teeth, which loosen the soil as deep 
or deeper than the plow has run. The clod crusher is next passed, which 
breaks the clods into fragments, at the same time it tends to press the soil too 
compactly together. An indispensable part of the operation is now to fol¬ 
low with a grubber to loosen the crumbled soil. 

We have known a corn crop to be nearly doubled in product by the use 
of a one-horse clod-crusher between the rows, to reduce the lumps into 
mellow earth. On undrained clay soils, its use would undoubtedly be often 
eminently advantageous. 

CLOVER HAY—How to make. —A successful farmer writes : Clover 
should never be cut when wet either by dew or rain. My practice usually 
is to start the mower, say at 2 or 3 o’clock p. m., and cut until the dew falls. 
If the sun is very scorching, I begin later in the day. This is put into cock 
the next day, sometimes before noon, but oftener late, depending upon the 
weather and thickness of the grass, but always before the leaves get crispy. 
Sometimes I commence cutting as soon as the dew is off in the morning, 
and get it up the same day. If the dew or rain fall upon clover while it is 
green, little or no injury results from it if fair weather follows soon, but after 
clover is considerably dried, rain or dew cannot fall upon it without serious 
injury to the quality of the hay. 

CLOVER ROOTS— Utility of —On all compact, heavy and tenacious 




THE FARM. 


69 

soils there is nothing better than a crop of clover to loosen and render it 
friable. Any one who has seen the difference between the state of pulver¬ 
ization in every inverted piece of sward land where only timothy and other 
similar grasses have grown, and where a dense mass of clover roots have 
struck down deeply and penetrated every part, will need no further argu¬ 
ment on this subject. 

WOOD Piling cord.— In piling cord wood place the bark side upward, 
as it will then turn off the water, keeping the wood dryer, and preventing 
the bark from dropping off and being lost when it is moved. 

Cattle ties.— The cuts represent chains for confining cattle in their 
stables. The large ring works up and down 
a round post, at the side of the manger; the 
ring being much larger than the post, admits 
of passing it over a short pin, which is 
inserted in the post above the height of the 
, animal, on which it will hang until the ani- 




ig. 79- 


Fig. 78. 


mal steps up by the side, when the person in 
attendance takes the ring off the pin and passes the chain down astride the 
neck and draws the T on the one end of the chain through one of the rings 
(according to the size of the animal’s neck,) on the other end, as shown in 
fig. 79. This forms a neat, comfortable, and secure fastening—the chains 
slipping up and down a stationary post, as the animal rises or lies down. 

This mode of securing cattle answers well where there are but few in num¬ 
ber, and where there is a good supply of straw, and proper attendance can 
be given to preserve cleanliness. 

CORN Cultivating.- -Young com should be cultivated as early as pos¬ 
sible, both to push on the crop and to kill the young weeds when they are 
small and feeble, and have not injured the young plants. An excellent 
mode of performing this work is to take a Share’s harrow, fix handles to it 
like those of a cultivator, and take out the middle tooth. Two horses will 
draw it, working two rows at a time, pulverizing the soil perfectly and run¬ 
ning close to the plants without throwing the earth upon them. This is 
especially adapted to corn on inverted sod, and Share’s harrow pulverizes 
in the best manner, without tearing up the turf, as it operates like the roller 
and harrow combined. 

CORNFIELD— Tape line in the. —The farmer who does not weigh 
and measure, is like the mariner at sea without log or compass. He 
cannot know with certainty whether he is drifting toward loss, or ad¬ 
vancing toward gain. He works in the dark. But if he can weigh and 
measure, he knows what practice to adopt and what to reject—making a 
difference of many thousands of dollars in the long run. Every farmer should 



70 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


therefore have and use not only a tape line, but a half bushel, a measured 
wagon-box, a graduated granary, and especially a platform scale, that he 
may regularly weigh every animal, to ascertain what food and mode of 
feeding is most profitable, and weigh every load of grain or of hay, to 
determine the product and the amount he is going to have to use or to 
spare, and to know the weight of every animal he offers in market without 
the uncertainty of mere guess work. There is no way by which a man may 
learn to be a money-making farmer faster than by this practice. 

CORNSTALKS— Steaming. —A correspondent of the Country Gentle¬ 
man steams his cornstalks in a cheap manner, by first cutting them up in a 
machine, and then placing them in a bin which holds three hundred bushel 
baskets. Over every three baskets he throws ten quarts of cold water, and 
then covers up the whole for twelve hours. Fermentation begins in six 
hours, and the food steams itself. 

CORN FODDER —Binding. —The strongest and cheapest material for 
binding up stalks, is the osier willow. The true sort, used bynurseymen, is 
almost as tough as a rope. It grows easily from cuttings on any rich soil, 
a row of it two or three rods long, occupying not one square rod, will afford 
enough to bind ten acres of com. It should be cut back to the ground 
every autumn, or else very early in the spring, to keep it young and fresh. 

CORN FODDER— Curing. —Corn sown thickly for fodder, always heats 
and spoils when placed in large stacks, even if dried for several weeks pre¬ 
viously. This deters many from raising this excellent and valuable crop. 
The best way is to cut and bind it in bundles, and place seven in eaoh 
round shock. After drying several weeks, draw these shocks, and place two 
together, on ground near the foddering yard. These large or double shocks 
if well made, will stand uninjured until foddered out. If placed on grass 
ground, the butts will not be frozen fast. They might be left in the-field 
till needed in winter, but for the inconvenience of being thus frozen, and 
the liability of snow or mud in the field. They are most conveniently hauled 
in a common wagon box, one man handing the shocks, whole and upright, to 
another who stands in the wagon to receive them, placing in position in two 
rows. If they have been well bound when put up, with two osiers or straw 
bands, they will keep snugly together. 

CORN—To prevent birds from pulling up. —As soon as the germin¬ 
ating corn in the planted field makes its appearance, sow corn all around the 
borders of the field. After a few days walk around the lot; if you find the 
com pretty nearly all picked up, sow again. Two applications are sufficient 
and will last the birds until the growing com is too strong for them. About 
a peck at a time will answer for a field of eight to ten acres, unless the birds 
should be unusually numerous. Timely observation in the field will indi- 


THE FARM. 


cate whether more is needed. I have practiced this method for many years, 
and have found it effectual. 

Corn husker.— A correspondent thinks there will never be a com husker 
invented superior to one he describes as follows: 
It is generally of iron or bone, about half an 
inch wide, with two holes made in it and a 
leather strap put in, forming a loop; slip this 
over a finger of the right hand, and you are equipped. An active hand 
with this can out-husk any machine that can be made to do it with neatness. 

Corn for fodder. —Let no farmer neglect at the proper season to sow 
a plentiful supply. Several years experience enables the writer to say, that 
at least double the amount of the best fodder may thus be obtained from 
an acre, over any other known mode, and very often triple the amount. If 
most meadows which now produce scarcely a ton per acre, were plowed 
and planted in this way, they would scarcely fail to yield four tons of the 
best and finest cattle feed, and many would yield five or six tons. 

The management of the crop, however, must be of the proper kind, or 
complete success cannot result. Never sow broadcast—for this requires 
four or five bushels of seed per acre, to succeed well, is less productive, 
and does not leave the ground clean. Invariably sow in drills, as follows: 
Furrow the land (after it is plowed and harrowed,) three feet apart, with 
a single horse plow; scatter the seed thickly along these furrows from a 
hand-basket, so that there may be at least forty or fifty grains to the foot. 
Cover the seed with a two-horse harrow, run lengthwise or crosswise with the 
furrows, and the crop is in. The only after-culture consists in running the 
cultivator once or twice between the rows—all weeds will be shaded and 
destroyed by the crop—and the ground will be left, early in autumn when 
the fodder is cut, as clean as a traveled road. 

The seed may be sown any time during the early part of June—two 
bushels will be required per acre—and it may be harvested early in autumn, 
in time for a crop of wheat. The stalks should be stacked as dry as pos¬ 
sible, in small stacks, and well salted, or injury by heating and mould¬ 
ing will follow. 

CORN—How to shovel from a wagon. —An agricultural writer sug¬ 
gests that a board a few feet long, placed standing from the top of the end 
board to the bottom of the wagon before loading, will allow the shovel to 
be used at once without any preliminary taking out by hand to reach the 
bottom. The same is true of potatoes and other roots. 

CORN AND PORK— Price of. —The best pork raisers whom we have 
met with, make a pound of pork from five pounds of corn meal. When 
pork is five cents a pound they consequently get one dollar a bushel for 



Fig. 80. 


72 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


their com. Everything was done in the best manner—good breed, clean¬ 
liness, regularity, com ground and scalded with three pails hot water to one 
pail of meal, standing twelve to eighteen hours. With what is termed ordi¬ 
nary good management, it requires about twice as much corn, or ten pounds, 
to make a pound of pork—and the common rule is, com at fifty cents, makes 
pork at five dollars; com at one dollar makes pork at ten dollars, and so 
on. Scalded meal is worth double corn in ear. 

CORN FODDER— Curing and securing. —The fodder should be cut 

as soon as the edges of the 
leaves begin to wither. The 
corn is cut by an instrument 
represented in fig. 82, and 
the mode or manner of us¬ 
ing it is also shown in the 
engraving. We have given 
in the article on “ Harvesting 
Corn ” the manner in which 
to stack corn fodder, but in 



Cutting Corn Fodder. 




Fig. 82. 

case the farmer desires to stack the fodder, it should be pitched on the 
wagon and drawn to the stacking ground, 
adjoining the winter cattle-yard. In case no 
ventilators are provided for the stack, then the 
same must not be very large, not much exceed¬ 
ing in size a common hay cock, or it will heat 
and become musty. But it is an easy matter to 
provide ventilators, and the best way is as fol¬ 
lows: Select three straight poles, place them FigT 84. Stack 
up-right (fig. 83) within ten or twelve inches of Complete. 

Fig. 83H^les each other ’ touchin g at t0 P> or better still, place a small 
for Stacks, block between them. They should spread out at the bottom, 
the distance being sufficient to make them stand well, with 
a band around the top to hold them together. The stalks 
are now stacked around the poles, which being parted, 
form a kind of chimney for the escape of moisture and 
heated air (fig. 84 and 85). The stacks should be made 
narrow and tall, and never contain more than a ton. The 
farmer who, however, has much bam and shed room may 
spread his fine corn fodder over the surface of the lofts on 
of Stack. top of the hay, but should not be more than three feet deep, 

and placed sloping, or as nearly vertical as may be. The better the ven¬ 
tilation, and the freer the sweep of air through these lofts, the better and 



Section 









THE FARM. 


7 3 


more thorough will the drying process be, and to do this the doors and 
windows should be left open whenever praticable. 

CORN— Harvesting. —An agricultural writer gives the following mode: 
As the saving of the crop of corn depends a great deal on the manner it is 
harvested, it is important that the farmer should see that it is well secured 
against wind and rain while standing in the stack. The following is my 
method • Cut six rows of corn m each row of stacks, commencing by cut¬ 
ting up the middle row, until you have a large armful, which set up between 
the two rows cut, tie the top with a stalk, and set it down as you would a 
sheaf in setting up a shock of wheat. This is the center of the shock, and 
is not to be tied around a hill; now cut up the other four rows, and as far 
ahead of the shock as is necessary to make a good sized shock, taking care 
to set the stalks up straight and to keep the shock round. When large 
enough, tie snugly around the top (not too near) with a good band of rye 
or flax straw, and you have a shock that will stand the wind, dry out well, 
and when pulled down to husk, will leave no stalks standing, as is the case 
when set up around a hill, or four hills, as some recommend. 

Corn-markers. —The Prairie Farmer describes a corn-marker which 
appears to have much to recommend it, to the description of which we add 
the accompanying cut. Fig. 86. 

It is made by putting a short axle in the forward wheels of a wagon, 
and a long one in the hind ones; couple them together by a 
six foot stick pinned on to the center of each axle, with two 
braces pinned on the hind axle, and running to the center of 
the coupling; the wagon tongue can be put on the front axle by 
two small iron bolts put through the ends of the hounds and 
axle ; the axles can be made of poles. Put the front wheels 
four feet apart, and the others twelve feet, though the length 
of axle can be made to suit. Sixty acres in a day can be 
ConvMarker mar ked with it. It runs light and makes a good mark, and 
one that wiil show after a rain as good as a sled mark. 

There are various modes of marking com for the straight rows described 
in the preceding article. One of the best mark¬ 
ers is shown in the accompanying figure (87) 
and consists of three runners, about three feet 
- , long, six inches wide, and three inches thick, 

placed three and a half feet apart, and well braced. A common wagon 
tongue may be attached to it. The driver walks behind the central run¬ 
ner, and ranges between the horses with his eyes. The rows being three 
and a half feet apart, he employs stakes ten and a half feet long to range 
by, and removes them as he passes, measuring accurately their length each 


JL 










7 4 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



Fig. 88. Marking Com with Chains. 


time; or a second person may remove the poles. This marker steadied by 
the tongue wili form very straight grooves in the soil. For cross-marking, 
employ the chain marker, shown in the cut (fig. 88.) It consists of a light 

pole, with trace chains suspended from 
it at distances for each row, or three or 
three and a half feet apart, as may be de¬ 
sired. Two men take the pole near each 
end, and one of them acting as guide and 
ranging accurately, they walk forward, dragging the chains in the soil, making 
a fine smooth line for each chain. The figure represents only five chains—six 
or seven may be employed without inconvenience, and the field marked off 
with great rapidity. By the first of these implements, a man and team will 
mark more than an acre, and by the use of the second, two men, or a man 
and boy, will mark two and a half acres in walking a mile. 

There is still another good and economical plan, as follows: Take a piece 
of tough scantling, set in a couple of smooth round poles for thills, and 
between these, behind, a couple of old plow handles, or a bow or frame to 
answer the same purpose. Then set in below, into large auger holes bored 
for the purpose, thick stout pins, say three inches wide, six inches long and 
inclining backwards. If the scantling is nine feet long, three teeth may 
be inserted, each four feet apart, or if eight feet long, each may be three and 
a half feet apart. If the first row is straight, the rest may be kept so by 
one tooth passing in the old mark. 

Corn shocks.— A good deal of good corn fodder is spoiled because the 
shocks are not well bound together, and storms throw them down. Large 
shocks of the husked stalks may be firmly secured by 
first bringing them firmly together with a rope, attached 
to a simple contrivance shown in the annexed figure. A 
small piece of board, A, has three holes bored through it; 
and a sharp, round, and tapering stick, B, has a crank 
attached. One end of a ten-foot rope is then passed 
through one hole and fastened to the crank; the board 
is placed against the shock, the sharp stick thrust 
through into the shock, and the rope passed around the shock, and hooked 
on an iron hook at the other hole, as shown in C. A few turns winds up 
the rope, binding the whole closely together, when a band is placed 
around and the rope unhooked for the next. 

CORN-FODDER— Cutting.— Cutting corn-fodder an inch or more 
long, is not good for cattle. A farmer, who had some thirty or forty head 
of cattle, cut enough stalks in half a day to last them a week, by means of 
an eight-horse power attached to a cutting machine, adjusted to cut scarcely 



Fig. 89.—Com 
Shock Binder. 


THE FARM. 


75 


an eighth of an inch in length. The stalks were thus reduced nearly as fine 
as chaff, and were eaten without difficulty. A large part of the sweet por¬ 
tions of the stalks, that are usually rejected and wasted, were thus con¬ 
sumed, and about double the amount of food thus obtained from them. 
Sweet, well-dried stalks give a great deal of the best feed. Water-soaked, 
half-fermented stalks, are not good for much, in whatever shape they may 
be fed. This mode of cutting admits the mixture of meal without diffi¬ 
culty. Cutting by hand is laborious, and does not pay. 

CRUST —Break the.— Every observant farmer must have noticed the 
crust which forms on the surface of newly stirred soils, after lying a few 
days to the action of the dews. A much heavier crust is formed by each 
shower of rain that falls. Food and successful cultivation requires that 
this newly formed crust be often and repeatedly broken by the hoe, harrow 
or other instrument. 

A striking instance in proof of the importance of this practice, has just 
been stated by an extensive farmer. He planted a field of broom corn, 
and by way of banter, told the man who assisted him, that each should 
choose a row as nearly alike as possible, and each should hoe his row, and 
the measured amount of crop on each should be the proof which was hoed 
best. Our informant stated the result in substance as follows:—“ Deter¬ 
mined not to be beaten, I hoed my row well once a week the summer 
through. I had not seen my assistant hoe his at all; but had observed 
for a long time he was up in the morning before me. A length I found him 
before sunrise, hoeing his broom corn, and I asked him how often he hoed it; 
he answered, ‘ Once a day regularly.’ The result of the experiment was, 
his row beat mine by nearly double the amount. ” 

DRAINING— Advantages of. —An English farmer made an experi¬ 
ment showing the advantages of draining on the barley crop. A stiff clay 
field had been well underdrained, and it all ripened early and equally, and 
the barley sold for 50 shillings per quarter. On another field, not drained, 
the barley ripened unequally, and brought in market only 37 shillings per 
quarter. 

Draining lengthens the season. —Farmers at the North often com¬ 
plain seriously that the seasons are too short for the execution of all their 
work, and the ripening of crops. A cure for this evil has been found in 
under-draining. Instead of waiting several weeks for the soil to become 
dry, they are enabled to plow well-drained land at once, to take time by the 
forelock, and to get through their work without hurrying, before others have 
begun. It also enables them to work more economically, by not being 
compelled to hire extra labor in a hurried season. Dry lands being less 


76 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


liable to frost in autumn, the crops may continue to grow later and the sea¬ 
son can easily be lengthened five weeks. 

DRILL MARKS— Advantages of.— The lines made by drilling in 
wheat, if straight and carefully and regularly made, will be useful in mark¬ 
ing out the spaces for sowing grass seed, as well as picking stone, sowing 
plaster, or applying top dressing, as they remain visible a long time after¬ 
wards. Every farmer should therefore place the drill in the hands of a 
driver who knows how to lay a straight furrow. 

DRAINING— Best form of tile for. —Never have a flat bottom for a 
channel. The discharge gutter at one of our colleges was found to become 
frequently choked with sediment, and to require frequent cleaning at great 
trouble and expense. It was made of plank, nailed together, forming a 
square tube, lying on one of its flat sides. “ Turn the tube, so as to rest 
on one of its comers,” said the professor of hydraulics. It was done—and 
it never became again choked—for the little water which ran through it, 
instead of being spread out over a broad flat surface, was concentrated into 
a narrow corner, and swept off all that became deposited there. 

EVERGREENS— Transplanting. —When young evergreens have their 
branches spreading out, down to the surface of the ground, as all ever¬ 
greens should to look well, it is often quite difficult to dig them up for 
transplanting, these spreading prostrate branches impeding the work of the 
spade. Again, when they are set out, the same difficulty occurs in plac¬ 
ing them properly in the hole, and filling in the earth. Having recently 
had occasion to set out a large number from the nursery rows, we found the 
work could not only be much better done, but in about one-half the time, 
by drawing the lower branches upwards, pressing them against the tree, 
and securing them in this position by passing around and tying a cord. The 
ease with which the operator could now work was remarkable. Nurserymen, 
who have many such trees to dig, would find it to their advantage to pro¬ 
vide a number of small straps to buckle around the trees during the opera¬ 
tion of removal. 

Evergreens from woods. —Very few land owners plant out a sufficient 
number of evergreen trees. They furnish some important advantages. 
They beautify the winter landscape; and, what is quite as important to the 
utilitarian, they protect from the sweep of cold winds. The farmer who 
has his dwelling flanked on the most windy points with a dense growth of 
handsome evergreens, is saved the yearly expense of ten to fifty dollars, 
in firewood, or anthracite. If his barnyard is well protected with evergreen 
belts, at least an equal amount is saved in hay and grain for his domestic 
animals. Nor is this all; intelligent cultivators have repeatedly asserted 
that the increased value of their fruit trees and crops, resulting from pro- 


THE FARM. 77 

tecting belts of trees, often reaches as high as fifty per cent, on the whole 
amount. 

In some places evergreen trees may be more cheaply procured, by the 
hundred or thousand, from nurseries. But they may be as often obtained 
from the borders of woods or swamps. It is very common to lose trees 
thus procured — which is generally ascribed to bad luck, but it always 
results from bad management. We have set out many hundreds of trees 
in this way, including White Pine, Hemlock, White Spruce, Balsam Fir, 
Arbor Vitae, etc., and never lost a tree that was managed according to the 
instructions given. The work has been done in autumn, winter and in the 
spring. There is but one leading and essential requisite; and that is, to 
carry a mass of earth on the roots. The instructions have been to take up 
a cake of earth large enough to hold the tree in an upright position, with¬ 
out upsetting when placed on the surface of the ground. The larger the 
tree, the larger, of course, must be the mass of earth. 

Let every farmer add to his plantation, in this way, during the winter. 
A few trees at a time will, after a while, give him plenty of protection. 
It will frequently be found convenient to do the work during the depth of 
winter. Young trees taken from along the borders of woods will be better 
and hardier than those from the center. The covering of snow and forest 
leaves often protects the soil, so as scarcely to freeze, or to form but a thin 
crust—just sufficient to hold the flat mass of earth together. A sharp 
spade easily cuts through this crust, and the trees thus lifted are easily slid,, 
in a standing position, up an inclined plank, and placed on a sled. When 
large we have drawn them up by a horse, by means of a rope attached to 
the foot of the stem. If the ground is frozen hard where they are to stand, 
they may be set upright together, and the roots protected until spring by 
straw thrown over them. 

FARMING— Economy in. —A well-known Western farmer says that a 
good grind-stone, set true, and run by horse-power, for grinding tools, hoes, 
spades, and plow coulters, will pay for itself in a month. He makes his 
men grind their hoes every morning, and take a file with them into the 
field to sharpen them when they become dull. His men think it extrava¬ 
gant to grind away the hoes, but he can buy a dozen hoes for less than he 
pays one of them for a week’s labor. Tools cost nothing in comparison 
with labor. It does not pay to give a man two dollars a day to load 
manure with a dung fork with one or two teeth out. A dull, rusty hoe 
will cost more in a week than a dozen new ones. Good working horses are 
cheaper than poor ones. A man and team cost about $600 a year, and it 
is poor policy to save $100 in the original purchase, and lose $200 or 
$300 yearly in the amount of work done. 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


78 

FARMING—To make profitable.— Every beginner in farming, by 
securing the following essentials, will succeed: 

1. Buy no more land than there is capital enough to pay for, with one- 
third more surplus—for a small farm free from debt, with plenty of means to 
stock it, enrich it, and carry on its work, will yield more than a larger one, 
encumbered with debt, conducted feebly in every part, with bad fences, 
poor implements, bony animals, weedy fields, and thin crops. 

2. Lay out the fields in best order, so as to admit a systematic rota¬ 
tion, and to give ready access to every field at all times without passing 
through other fields. 

3. Provide good fences and necessary gates—and valuable time will 
not be lost in driving out intruding animals, nor crops lost by their dep¬ 
redations. 

4. Furnish good farm buildings, to secure properly the crops, and to 
afford shelter to animals. 

5. Select the best animals and the best implements that can be secured 
for a reasonable price. 

6. Bring the soil into good condition by manuring and draining, and 
keep it so by judicious rotation. 

7. Effect a clear and systematic arrangement of all work, so that there 
shall be no clashing or confusion. 

8. Employ diligence and energy, and adopt careful management. 

FEED— Cooking. —A successful farmer gives the following directions 

for steaming feed for stock: How to get a good cover for Mott’s agricul¬ 
tural boiler, buy a good tight molasses hogshead; saw the bottom off, say 
eighteen inches from the head, very true and even; saw a circular hole in 
the bottom ten inches in diameter, dishing, so that the piece taken out will 
do for a cover. When you use your boiler, fill it even full of potatoes or 
whatever you wish to cook ; put on the cover, and fill the top full through 
the trap-door, and if the hogshead is of the right size and fits well to the 
top of the kettle, so that but little if any steam escapes, you will find a 
great saving in fuel, as you can both cook one-third more, and do it with 
very much less fuel, than without any cover or only a loose one. My own 
is a two-barrel kettle, and I can cook it full of potatoes and pumpkins in 
two hours, with one large handful of seasoned wood. It is all-important, 
however, that the apparatus should be well-fitting, so as to preserve all the 
steam. 

FARMING— Improvement in. —In answer to an inquiry at an agricul¬ 
tural meeting, whether the crops generally in the State of New York were 
decreasing, as some had asserted, A. B. Dickinson said, “ there was no 
truth in the statement. Farmers now raise more than their fathers did; 


THE FARM. 79 

live better, dress better, travel more, live in better houses, educate their 
children better, and are in every way more prosperous.” 

FARMS—To increase the price of.— Various motives actuate differ¬ 
ent land owners in making improvements. But no appeal can be made to 
them that will be so generally felt as to urge the importance of increasing 
the money value of their estates. When we say to them that we have a 
secret to impart by which they may add five, or ten, or twenty dollars per 
acre to the price which their farms will bring in market, they listen, as they 
should do, with interest. It is for the purpose of augmenting their prop¬ 
erty that their labors and exertions are applied year after year. To some 
of our readers we shall not impart what is entirely new, when we assert that 
the planting and successful cultivation of fruit trees, and securing a good 
supply of the best fruit the year round, will do more towards adding to the 
real as well as the market value of their places than can be ac¬ 
complished with the same outlay in any other manner. We ought, 
perhaps, to add that a portion of ornamental planting should not be omit¬ 
ted ; for while fruit trees are valued by every one, the addition of a portion 
for shade and ornament will certainly increase the attraction given by the 
more substantial and higher market value of fruit trees and their products. 

A purchaser visits a certain neighborhood to select a farm. One of his 
first inquiries is, is it well planted with fruit? If an affirmative answer can 
be given, he may be induced to pay several dollars more per acre, amount¬ 
ing to five hundred or a thousand dollars for the whole farm—while the 
trees and planting have not cost more than one hundred and fifty. 

There is another consideration of a higher character, namely : the in¬ 
fluence of home attractions to the owner’s children—an attraction which 
may prove the turning point between a life of usefulness, industry and 
domestic enjoyment on the one hand, and of a roving, restless, and perhaps 
immora 1 character on the other. But our object at the present moment is 
to point out the money value of these improvements. The farm will bring 
a higher price, because it is worth more. Fresh fruit, constantly on hand, 
will save many dollars yearly in family supplies, and the surplus may per¬ 
haps yield a few hundred dollars by marketing. But there is still another 
point of profit. The owner probably has boys whom he has endeavored 
to educate to usefulness, and whom he expects will assist him when they grow 
up, and perhaps take charge of the farm. Now let him figure for a 
moment between the amount which he would be likely to realize in ten 
years from his land, if he should be compelled to do all his work, and a 
part of the superintendence by means of second or third rate hired men, on 
one hand, or through the energetic and careful management of his own 
sons, in the prime and vigor of their manhood, on the other. If farming 


So 


brand’s cyclopedia 


is made repulsive to them by placing them on a piece of land without a. 
single fruit or ornamental tree, and which will only raise crops of wheat and 
com, they will be likely to leave the pursuit and employ their hands at 
trade or speculation. 

Farmer’s tools. —A certain number of tools, and some skill in their 
use, will often save the farmer much time in sending for a mechanic, and, 
some expense in paying him. Every farmer should be able to make small 
repairs on his wagons, gates, buildings, etc. A room, or a portion of a room, 
should be devoted to keeping these tools; a pin or nail should be inserted 
for each one to hang on, and the name of each tool written or painted 
under the pin, that it may be promptly returned to its place, and any 
missing one detected. Keep every tool in its place—do not wait for a 
more convenient season, but return every one to its place the moment it is 
done with. If left out of place a minute it will be likely to remain a week, 
and cause a loss of time in looking for it. Keeping everything in its place 
is a habit costing nothing when formed. The tools should be, a hammer 
saw, augers, brace and bits, gimlets, screw driver, wrench, two planes, 
chisels, mallet, files and rasp, saw-set, trowel, and a box with compart¬ 
ments for different sized nails, screws, nuts, bolts, etc. Common farm 
implements and tools, such as hoes, spades, shovels, forks, rakes, scythes, 
etc., may be in the same room, on the opposite side, and the same care 
be taken to keep every one in its place. 

FEEDING— Regularity in.— Every good farmer knows that any 
domestic animal is a good clock—that it knows almost to a minute when 
the regular feeding time has arrived. If it has been accustomed to be fed 
with accuracy at the appointed period, it will not fret until that period 
arrives, after which it becomes very restless and uneasy till its food comes. 
If it has been fed irregularly, it will begin to fret when the earliest period 
arrives. Hence this fretting may be entirely avoided by strict punctuality ; 
but it cannot be otherwise. The very moment the animal begins to worry, 
that moment it begins to lose flesh; but the rate of this loss has never 
been ascertained—it is certainly worthy of investigation, and can only be 
determined by trying two modes, punctuality and irregularity side by side, 
under similar circumstances, and with the same amount of food, for some 
weeks or months together. 

There is one precaution to be observed in connection with regular feed¬ 
ing, where some judgment is needed. Animals need more in frosty or 
sharp, than in warm or damp weather. Hence if the same amount by 
weight is given at every feeding, they will not have enough when the 
weather is cold, and will be surfeited when it is warm and damp. Both of 


THE FARM. 8 1 

these evils must be avoided, while a little attention and observation will 
enable the farmer to do it. 

FEED —Steamer for cooking. —A Western correspondent, remote from 
facilities for procuring boilers and cooking apparatus from the East, inquires 
for a cheap and efficient contrivance that may be manufactured nearer home. 
A cheap and good boiler may be made of two-inch plank, made into a 
box, halved together at the comers, and secured by nailing on sheet-iron 
braces. This box should be of such size that a single sheet of large sheet- 
iron may form the bottom, by projecting two inches on each side, so as to 
be bent up and nailed against the sides of the box. This is set on brick¬ 
work, forming a place for the fire beneath; the fire striking against the 
sheet-iron only, and the flue far enough off to secure the wooden part of the 
box from burning. A board, fitting the inside of the box horizontally, has 
cleats nailed across the under side, so as to keep it about three inches above 
the sheet-iron bottom; and these cleats are hollowed up in the middle, so 
as to rest only on their ends. The board has 
several holes bored through for the passage of 
the steam. About three inches of water are 
poured into the box, the roots or other sub¬ 
stance are then placed upon the board, till filled; 

Fig. 90. Steam Boiler. the tight lid is buttoned down, and heat applied 
beneath till the steaming is completed. A box of greater length may be 
used, the sheet-iron covering only a part of the bottom, provided sufficient 
care is taken to make it tight where joining the wooden portions of the bot¬ 
tom, the iron part only, as a matter of course, being over the fire-place. Or, 
two sheets of iron may be joined together by lapping like the joints of stove¬ 
pipe, and the box thus made double the capacity. The fire-place will econ¬ 
omize the fuel in the best manner, if built so that a thin sheet of flame will 
pass beneath the whole bottom, like that in Mott’s furnace. 

A steamer was described many years ago in one of the earlier volumes 
of The Cultivator , which possesses several important advantages on account 
of the ease with which its contents are transferred from one place to another. 
It is represented in figure 90, where the box on the left is the boiler set on 
the brick fire-place as already described, but with the flue placed at one side , 
so that a door may open at the end. The right hand box is placed on small 
wheels or rollers, which run on horizontal rails, running into the boiler, 
where it is enclosed by the tight door. This box (with holes bored in the 
bottom,) is run along the rails under the bin of roots, and is quickly filled 
through a trap-door. It is then run into the boiler, the door closed, and 
heat applied. The three inches of water is quickly made to boil, and the 
steaming process goes on rapidly. When completed, the box with its cooked 

5 






82 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


contents is run out (by hooking into a ring) on the rails, and an iron pin 
withdrawn which opens its bottom downwards, and discharges its contents 
into another box placed beneath, and standing beside the feeding-trough. 
If the rails are of some length, several such boxes may be filled succes¬ 
sively, and allowed to cool. No safety-valve is required, as a sufficient 
quantity of waste steam will escape at the door, even if list is applied 
around its edges to make it tight. If necessary, a stop-cock or two may 
be inserted into the lower part of the boiler, to show the amount of water, 
as in the common boilers of a steam engine. The door is set about four 
inches higher than the bottom of the boiler, to allow space for water. 

We cannot state from experience the value of this apparatus, but if there 
is no drawback, it must save a great amount of labor in handling roots and 
other food for cattle, which, being daily performed, constitutes a large item 
in a year. 

Feeding hay to animals. —Much fodder is sometimes wasted by giving 
too much at a time. The breath of the animals condense upon it in cold 
weather and render it unpalatable, and they refuse it. Feeding often and 
but little at a time is true economy. 

FENCES, Cheap.— In most of the newer portions of the country, the 
old-fashioned zig-zag rail fences still prevail, and where timber is abundant, 
do not cost one-third the amount required for good post and board fences, 
Many of them are made wholly of rails, without any protection at the cor¬ 
ners, and are consequently easily thrown down by cattle, colts, and the 
wind. A firmer fence consists in the addition of stakes and riders ; but the 

projecting two feet beyond the fence, 



the whole occupies a strip of land at least ten 
feet wide. Placing the stakes upright at the 
comers, and connecting the two opposite ones 
near the top by means of a loop of annealed 
or small telegraph wire, is a great improve¬ 
ment, occupying but little more than half the 
ground required for the former. Another 
modification, equally efficient and as saving of 
land, consists in placing the riders (for which 
long poles are best,) in a straight line on the 
top and at the center of the fence, and then 
placing upright stakes in each inner comer 




Fig. 91. Ground Plan of Fences, between the rider and the fence, the lower end 
merely resting on the ground, and the other wedging closely between 
the top rail and riders. 

The accompanying figures, showing the ground plan of each fence, will 


THE FARM. 


83 


serve to make their construction plainer, and to exhibit their several 
advantages. 

Fig. 1 represents the simple zigzag fence, seen on careless farmers’ 
grounds, without any stakes. 

Fig. 2 is the common “ staked and ridered ” fence, somewhat substan¬ 
tial, but occupying too broad a strip of land. 

Fig. 3 is a better arrangement, with upright stakes placed at the oppo¬ 
site comers, and the two connected and held closely to their place by a 
loop of annealed wire. 


Fig. 4 is similar to No. 3, but is better, inasmuch as the stakes are placed 
in the acute comers, and therefore maintain their places better, and brace 
the fences more firmly than if placed in the obtuse angles, as in fig. 3. 

In fig. 5, the bracing is still more perfect, but the fence has not the neat 
appearance of fig. 4. In the two last, the stakes need not enter the ground, 
but may rest merely upon the surface, and hence short pieces of timber, 
broken rails, or any sticks five feet long will answer, provided they are con¬ 
nected by wire about two-thirds or three-fourths of the height of the fence. 
These two modifications, then, are more economical in construction, as well 
as in the length of the stakes, no holes being required for the insertion of 
their lower ends. Less strength of wire is needed for these, as the stakes 
are more securely held in the acute angles. 

FENCES— Movable.— These are useful to the farmer on many occa¬ 
sions such as dividing large fields temporarily, and enclosing animals on par¬ 
ticular spots of ground. They are also useful for inclosing pigs and poultry, 
for a few weeks among plum trees, during the Curculia season. The an¬ 
nexed fig. 92 shows a mode of construct- 
Ijp ing hurdles for this purpose, extensively 
adopted in England, and to some extent in 
£ this country. The fence consists of sepa¬ 
rate frames or “ lengths,” (one of which is 
Fig. 92. Portable Fence. shown by the figure,) with a sharpened post 
at each end driven into holes made in the ground by a crowbar, and secured 
at the top by withing together, though the latter is not indispensable. These 
pieces are made of round poles or sticks split in two, the flat sides being 
placed next to the cross-bars which are fastened to them by wrought nails 
at the point of intersection. The points of the posts are driven into the 
ground to the depth of about 14 to 16 inches. 

FIRE— Hay stacks, to prevent catching. —If you suspect that the 
hay when stacked is not sufficiently dry, let a few handfuls of common salt 
(well dried) be thrown between each layer, which will absorb the moisture, 
and also conduce to the health of the cattle which feed on it. 

















8 4 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 





JACK SCREWS.—These are often useful, in many ways, to every 

farmer. Bams, and other 
buildings, often settle 
slightly out of position, 
not only causing injury to 
the buildings themselves, 
but also interfering with a 
free opening and shutting 
of the doors, etc. A few 
minutes’ use of one of these 
screws is generally suffi¬ 
cient to set all right. They 
may be used for lifting any 
heavy body, and as a wagon-jack for large or loaded wagons. 

FARM GATES.—The following has been found an excellent form, 
and which may be made for about three dollars, 
including material. The dimensions of every part 
are added, that the stuff may be procured of the 
Sright size and length, and save the cost of cutting 
away waste portions. It is ten feet and a half long, 

Fig. 94. Farm Gate. an q the following are the dimensions of the differ¬ 
ent parts: Top piece, ten and a half feet long, three by four inches at heel, 
and two and a half by two at latch end, is best made of elm or white oak, 
but will do of pine. 

Six horizontal bars below, all an inch thick— the top one two and a half 
inches wide—the next four three inches wide, and the bottom one four 
inches wide—all of pine. 

Heel piece, four feet eight inches long, four and a half by three inches— 
head piece, or at latch end, four and a half feet long, and two by two and a 
half inches—both of oak, or other hard, tough wood. 

Two perpendicular braces (one on each side of the horizontal bars, oppo¬ 
site each other, secured by screw-bolts passing through the three,) three 
feet eight inches long, three inches wide, and three quarters of an inch 
thick, of white oak. 

Two diagonal braces six feet long, three inches wide, and one inch thick, 
of white oak. The latch plays horizontally or endwise between the two 
vertical cross-pieces, nailed on each side of two horizontal bars, and through 
a corresponding mortise in the head piece. The latch is two feet long, two 
inches wide, and three quarters of an inch thick, of white oak. A vertical 
wooden spring screwed to the head-piece presses a wooden pin in the latch, 












THE FARM. 85 

and keeps it shut. It is drawn back for opening the gate by means of 
another small pin in its upper edge. It makes a very strong gate. 

FODDER —Green and dried.— The following are the results of experi¬ 
ments made many years ago in New England, to determine the loss of 
weight by the drying of different grasses. They will prove interesting to 
graziers. The experiments were made in 1822 and 1823. The white 
clover of 1822 grew in the shade; that of 1823 in the sun. 

1822. 1823. 

100 lbs. green white clover gave ------- 17^ - - - • 27 

“ “ red clover, - -- -- -- -- 27J-25 

lt “ herds’ grass, (timoihy), - - - - - 40-39 

“ “ cornstalks, ----- 25 - 25 

“ “ red-top, - - - 46 

“ “ couch grass, - -- -- ->48 

“ “ fowl meadow, ----- "S 3 

FORK—A horse.— A correspondent gives the following description of 
a horse pitchfork, which he thinks has cheapness and simplicity to recom¬ 
mend it: It consists of a simple fork without any latches or springs. The 

handle is firmly mortised into the head piece, 
and strengthened by the iron braces at £, e. 
To the end of the handle attach the long 
rope, a , which runs through the pulleys. 
The guy rope, b , is attached to the head 
Fig- 95 - Horse Fork. piece by means of two short ropes, c, c, of 
equal length, secured in staples at d , d. There is no “ balancing ” to do; 
but as the fork with its load swings over the beam or into the hay, give the 
guy rope a slight jerk, requiring but little effort, when the load will drop, 
the tines slipping out of it, and the fork may be lowered for another. I 
think it has one advantage over all others that I have seen described, that 
is, it is always ready —no latches or springs to put in place when lowered, 
but it may be thrust in for another load immediately. There is nothing 
about it liable to get out of order, and it works with all ease. 

FORKS— Wooden stable. —Steel manure forks having sharp points, 
are very unsuitable tools to be used in cleaning the stalls of horses and 
homed cattle, except in the hands of men who are always extremely care¬ 
ful in handling such tools. Careless boys in their booby-hood, and heed¬ 
less men, who are about as liable to thrust sharp fork tines into the animals’ 
legs, as into the bedding beneath them, should never be allowed to have any 
steel forks in the stable. We have known valuable horses 
rendered almost worthless simply by a wound in the leg 
with a steel fork. We have in mind a beautiful horse of 
^Stable Fork*. 611 a neighbor, which for more than a month was unable to 
use one leg, into which a fork tine had been thrust when a boy was bedding 
the horse. 






86 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


The preceding engraving (fig. 96) represents a wooden stable fork for 
forking over the bedding, especially when an animal is in the stall. The 
head should be made of hard, tough timber, about eight or ten inches long, 
two inches wide and one inch thick. An old broom handle or piece of a 
rake handle, will be sufficiently strong for the handle, as the fork is not 
expected to possess strength for pitching manure. A cross piece may be 
secured at the end of the handle, if desirable, to enable the person hand¬ 
ling it to keep the fork from turning over, when in use. The tines should 
be eight or nine inches long, nearly round, half an inch in diameter at the 
large end, and about one-fourth of an inch in diameter at the small end, 
dressed off round and smooth, so that they will enter the straw easily. 

In order to give a suitable degree of “ hang ” to the fork, let the tines be 
inserted within three-eights of an inch of the bottom of the head, while 
the hole for the handle should be bored within half an inch of the upper 
side of the head. A careless thrust with such a fork would simply bruise 
the skin of an animal, but make no flesh wound. 

GREASE —For the iron axles of carriages, etc.— Ten quarts of 
water, ten pounds of tallow, one pound of soda, and three and a half pounds 
palm oil. 

GREASE —For axles.— 1. Water, two gallons; soda, one pound; palm 
oil, twenty pounds; mix well by heat and stir till nearly cold, or as long as 
you can. 

2. To two gallons vape oil add two gallons water; soda, one pound; 
and palm oil, one half pound. 

3. To two gallons water add six pounds of tallow ; palm oil, twelve pounds, 
and soda, one pound. Heat to 210 degrees Fahrenheit and stir until 
quite cool. 

4. Tallow, sixteen pounds; palm oil, twenty pounds; plumbago, two 
pounds. This makes a good grease. 

Greasing wagons. —Few people fully appreciate the importance of 
thoroughly lubricating the axles, etc., of wagons and carriages, and still 
fewer know what are the best materials and the best methods of applying 
them. A well-made wheel will endure common wear from ten to twenty- 
five years, if care is taken to use the right kind and proper amount of 
grease ; but if this matter is not attended to, they will be used up in five 
or six years. Lard should never be used on a wagon, for it will penetrate 
the hub and work its way out around the tenons of the spokes and spoil 
the wheel. Tallow is the best lubricator for wooden axle-trees, and castor 
oil for iron. Just grease enough should be applied to the spindle of a 
wagon to give it a light coating; this is better than more, for the surplus 
put on will work out at the ends and be forced by the shoulder-bands and 


THE FARM. 


87 


nut-washers into the hub around the' outside of the boxes. To oil an axle- 
tree, first wipe the spindle clean with a cloth wet with spirits of turpentine, 
and then apply a few drops of castor oil near the shoulders and end. One 
teaspoonfull is sufficient for the whole. 

GRASS—How to keep from growing in walks.— When the soil has 
not been excavated, where the walk is made, to the depth of ten or twelve 
inches, and the excavation is not filled with stone, gravel, old mortar and 
other substances, the grass roots on each side of such walks will frequently 
run into the soil in the walk, and send up shoots so numerous that the walk 
will be quite green. Make a weak brine and sprinkle the walks, by means 
of a water sprinkler, as often as the grass appears. A few pounds of salt 
used in this way will save a vast amount of hard hoeing, and at the same 
time, keep such walks clean and neat. 

Where there are quack roots, Canada thistle roots, or roots of any other 
noxious plants, it will be quite as well to sow salt along the walks as it 
would to use brine. 

GRASS— Sowing seed without grain.— We have, for some years past, 
occasionally recommended the practice of sowing grass seed early in spring, 
without grain. This recommendation has been founded on our own experi¬ 
ence. We have never failed in obtaining a good crop of grass the same 
season when the sowing has been done early enough, with ground in good 
order. The soil should be sufficiently mellow to cover the grass seed when 
rolled in. A light brushing has answered the same purpose. To cause a 
sufficient growth before hot or parching weather sets in, the work should 
be done about the time the buds of trees commence swelling, and as much 
sooner as may be convenient. 

We find the following statement bearing on this subject in a late number 
of the Boston Cultivator: 

“It is a mistake to suppose that grass sown by itself in spring will not 
yield a crop of hay till the following year. If the ground is in good order 
and the season is favorable, it will generally give a fair crop in three months 


from the time it was sown. 

Halter for orchards. —A correspondent describes a halter used in 
the Island of Jersey for cattle running in orchards, as it 
prevents them from raising their heads more than a few feet 
from the ground. It is shown in the accompanying cut, 
(fig. 97,) the wood pieces enclosing the cheek bones, and 
the loose rope running under or behind the fore legs. It 
| might be occasionally used in this country. 

HARNESS— Dressing. —Long continued observations 
Fig. 97. show that harness and other leather exposed to the action 



88 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


of ammonia continually given off in stables, become weak and rotten 
sooner than other leather. Even when care is taken to protect it with 
grease, this takes place. Professor Artus recommends the addition of a 
small quantity of glycerine to the oil or fat employed in greasing such kind 
of leather, asserting that it keeps it always pliable and soft. 

HARROWS— For stony land. —A stout, double, square harrow is 
often made about as follows: Three timbers on each side the hinges, or 
six in all, each timber about 4 feet 8 inches long, 3 inches square, or 3 by 
3J inches—five teeth in each timber, or thirty in all, each tooth about 
seven-eighths by three-fourths of an inch and a foot entire length. The 
strength may vary with the degree of stoniness, and the teeth may be set 
back a little, to pass freely ; where there are few or no stones, many more 
and smaller teeth are more efficient. 

HAY—To avoid running out of.— Every farmer naturally has an aver¬ 
sion to running out of hay in spring before grass comes. No one desires 
to buy that which he ought to have raised, to keep his cattle from starving; 
and the only alternative, when short of fodder, namely, placing them on 
short allowance, is still worse. The farmer should know, before he enters 
winter, whether he has enough feed for all his domestic animals. To ascer¬ 
tain this, many resort to past experience, determining as nearly as they can 
guess—often by a very vague kind of guessing. Those who have kept care¬ 
ful record of tons consumed by a given head of cattle, or a certain number 
of horses, may determine more nearly. Where the cattle and horses have 
been weighed, and the aggregate weight of the herd thus determined, the 
estimate may be made with more accuracy. Some animals eat more than 
others for the same weight; a greater difference is occasioned by the sever¬ 
ity or mildness of the weather, or the degree of shelter given from the cold; 
but as a general rule, a horse should have three per cent, of his weight daily 
in food (hay or grain,) and cattle, which digest better, two and a half per 
cent. If the farmer has ascertained the number of tons of fodder he has 
deposited in his bam, he may now, if he understand arithmetic, determine 
pretty nearly how his hay is likely to run, before grass time. If he has no 
record of the amount of his hay, he may determine very nearly, by meas¬ 
uring. First, by finding the length, breadth, and depth of the hay, he at 
once knows the cubic feet. Good, solid timothy, the average of a bay, 
twelve or fifteen feet deep, will weigh a ton to about five hundred cubic feet. 
If the hay is clover, it will require six hundred or six hundred and fifty for a 
ton; and if the hay is only five or six feet deep, add one-sixth more. After 
determining the number of tons, and the whole weight of all his animals, he 
may at once know if he has enough. The result will, however, be considera¬ 
bly modified by causes which he has more or less at his control. Regularity in 


THE FARM. 


89 


feeding will have its influence; good feeding racks will prevent much waste ; 
and comfortable shelter will save many tons to every large herd. A skillful 
farmer informed us that formerly, when he had just erected a fine new barn, 
with ample shelter of the best kind, he had learned, as he thought, accord¬ 
ing to his usual estimate, that he would have to buy hay to complete the 
wintering of his animals; but on trying his new sheds and stables, so great 
was the saving actually effected that he had several tons the next spring 
to spare. 

Hen manure. —Several estimates and experiments make the value, of 
dry hen manure, in gardening, about fifty dollars per ton ; each fowl on an 
average consumes about one bushel and three-fourths of corn annually, or 
a little less than a gill and a half a day; and it has been found that one 
hen will yield about a bushel to a bushel and a third of manure per year. 
Various estimates make this worth from seventy cents to a dollar for each 
fowl. It is very easy to save it, by placing the scrapings or cleanings of the 
hen-house in a barrel with thin alternating layers of road dust. 

HOE —Weeding.- -A correspondent of an agricultural paper gives the 
following description of an efficient implement for cleaning crops of carrots, 
onions, etc., fig. 98. Take about eighteen inches of pretty good old scythe, 
cut the back off, and five inches from each end, bend the blade up to a 
little more than a right angle. Punch a couple of holes 
in each end, and nail in a narrow head, six inches long. 
Put in an old rake-stale for a handle. The blade should 
Weeding Hoe. stand about two inches outside of a right angle from the 
handle. To use it—reach out about three feet and draw it towards you, 
letting it run about an inch deep. It will cut everything clean, and run close 
to the row. There is nothing like it for killing small weeds, and it will 
accomplish more than double the work of an ordinary hoe. If you have 
an old scythe, a chisel and a punch, you can make one in an hour, and 
next summer, when your onions, etc., get weedy, you will not regret your 


trouble. 

HIGHWAYS.—It is an old-fashioned notion that highways were made 
to travel in, and belong to the traveling public. A few have discovered the 
error of this opinion, and now employ them for barnyards by setting their 
buildings on them—others use them for coarse tool-houses, and pile up old 
carts, wagons, sleds, rollers, plows, harrows, etc., along their sides—others 
use them for deposits of rubbish, and throw piles of brush along the fences, 
and weeds, ashes, leather trimmings, etc., into their centre—others, again, 
make cattle yards and pastures of them, the cattle helping themselves to 
their neighbors’ cabbages, the horses jumping into their neighbors’ wheat 
fields, the hogs rooting up the grass walk—and all of them terrifying the 



90 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


little school girls on their way to the district school and returning. We are 
old-fashioned people, however, and prefer clean, neat roads, and quiet ani¬ 
mals in good, sheltered, private barnyards or stables, or in rich pastures with 
good fences. 

HEDGES— Trimming. —There has been some discussion, of late years, 
on the expense and best mode of trimming Osage Orange Hedges, and 
some have regarded it a formidable item of expense. We have made some 
experiments and observations on this subject, and give our readers the fol¬ 
lowing results: 

Trimming with a stiff scythe is a rapid mode, but as the operator has to 
strike upwards in order to do the work smoothly, and to prevent breaking 
and splitting the branches, it is hard and severe work on the wrist. In most 
of the experiments alluded to, a common corn-cutter has been employed, 
which has a wooden handle about a foot and a half long, in which a steel 
blade is set obliquely and about twelve inches long (fig. 99.) With this simple 
instrument one man has trimmed one-half to three-fourths of 
^ a mile of four-year hedge on both sides in a day—cutting it 
Fig. 99. to a peak in the middle, like the roof of a house. A great 
improvement would be made in this tool by making the handle three and a 
half feet long, and setting the blade more nearly in a line with it, as shown 
in fig. 100. The blade of an old scythe, cut short, might be worked over 
by a blacksmith, so as to answer the purpose well. 

This length of handle enables the operator to strike 
more efficient blows, and keep his hands clear of 
the thorns. The workman we have employed is I0 °* 

satisfied he could easily trim a mile or more in a day with such a tool. 
When the hedge becomes older and higher, the labor probably would be 
somewhat increased; but two annual trimmings would not probably cost 
more than one cent a rod. 

HORSE CLEANER.—In muddy weather, the legs and bodies of horses 
frequently become covered and encrusted with the hardened mud, which, 
for the comfort of the animal as well as decent appearance, should be 
— v scraped off and the hair brushed clean, dry and smooth* 

f_ \ A currycomb is too harsh a tool for scraping off the mud. 

Fig. 101.— Wood especially around the angular parts of the legs. A much 

Horse-cleaner, better thing is a very cheap and simple scraper, made for 
the purpose, either of wood or sheet-iron, and which has 
been in use many years. Fig. 101 represents a wooden one, 
which may be made of a thin piece of hard board or the 
stave of a barrel. One end is rounded so as to be held com- Fig . JQ2 ^eet 
fortably in the hand, and the other sloped to an edge. Fig. iron Horse- 
102 is a sheet-iron scraper, which is quickly made by any cleaner. 






THE FARM. 91 

tinker. It is similar in form to the other, but a portion is rolled up at one 
end to form a handle. In addition to scraping off mud, this sheet-iron 
slade is useful in hot weather for removing perspiration from the horse’s 
back and sides. 

HORSES— Good and poor. —It costs no more to keep a good horse, 
one that will do a heavy day’s work with ease, than a poor one with more 
bone than muscle, and hard to keep in order. A good, well-chosen team, 
compactly built, easy keepers, etc., well taken care of, will do one-half more 
work each day than a bad or common team. Good horses will, of course, 
pay the interest on the whole cost several times over, and be far cheaper 
than the others. It will therefore do to pay a hundred dollars or more 
additional on them. A man whose labor costs three hundred dollars for 
the season will accomplish far more with fine animals than the cheap ones. 

IRRIGATION— Experiment in. —C. L. Kiersted, of Kingston, N. Y., 
gives a successful experiment in irrigation, in the New York Agricultural 
Transactions. He had four acres of hillside meadow, with rock so near 
the surface that there was only six inches of soil. The grass was about 
half a ton per acre. Furrows were plowed so as to take the water from a 
stream over the highest part, making small outlets from the furrows, so as 
to moisten the whole land. The result was three tons per acre. The next 
year the irrigation was neglected “ and it was less than half a crop.” The 
year following, the water was let on again, with the same good result. The 
water was passed over the land twice a week—when indications of the 
grass lodging appeared, the water was withdrawn, and the crop cut. The 
cost of watering was about two dollars per acre. Other experiments are 
equally successful. 

LAWN—How to have a good. —Make the soil deep, rich and mellow, 
sub-soiling or hand trenching, as circumstances may dictate. If not now 
fertile, work in thoroughly and intimately a large quantity of fine manure, 
taking the greatest care that this manure be evenly distributed, or else 
green spots and patches will disfigure the lawn. Sow very early in spring, 
and roll or brush in a dense seeding of lawn grass. It should be applied 
at the rate of at least two bushels per acre. If sown very early, it will 
come up quickly and evenly, and should be mown when a few inches high, 
repeating the process every week through the season, and it will in a few 
weeks furnish a fine, handsome close turf. 

LAND— Clean. —As a general rule, such grain crops as are good to 
accompany seeding down to grass, should be put in very clean land. 
Wheat is an example ; it allows grass to grow freely in it; hence the land 
should be in perfect order, and made clean by summer fallow if necessary, 
or the stubble will be full of foreign stuff. On the contrary, such as are 


92 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


unfavorable to seeding down, such as oats, buckwheat, and dense com 
fodder in drills, are the best to smother down weeds. 

FOREST LEAVES— For litter.— The warmest bedding for domestic 
animals, especially on plank floors, is perfectly dry forest leaves. They lie 
in strata, interpose thin plates of air, and thus form a complete non-con¬ 
ductor, and they prevent cold currents of air from passing through. They 
also form an excellent constituent of manure or compost heaps. They 
may be easily collected just before winter, in hollows, where prevailing 
winds have swept them into large beds. 

MANURE —Liquid. —This mode of applying manure has one great 
advantage over the common way of enriching land for gardens. It 
passes in among all the particles of the soil, and is thus more intimately dif¬ 
fused than any mixture of solid manure in lumps. On all vegetables that 
require strong fertility, its results are excellent—such plants, for instance, as 
asparagus, rhubarb, and celery. A correspondent of the Country Gentle¬ 
man says: “ Those who would like to try this system in their gardens should 
sink a hogshead into the earth in a convenient corner of their garden, and 
liquify guano, hen manure, cow dung, urine, etc., etc., with from six to ten 
or more times their bulk or weight of house slops, suds or soft water, and 
after thorough stirring to secure a solution of all the fertilizing elements, 
allowing the solid or sedimentary portion to settle to the bottom, apply the 
liquid by a watering can, hydropult, or other apparatus, to the crops after 
or about sundown.” 

OSIER— For bands. —Every farmer should have a small plantation of 
osier for making bands for binding cornstalks, threshed wheat, etc. Rye 
straw has been extensively used for this purpose, where it is raised and can 
be procured—but our opinion is that a square rod of the best osier is worth 
nearly an acre of rye straw. It is also more easily managed, for what a 
man would carry of the osier in his arms would bind as much straw or stalks 
as half a wagon load of rye straw. A great deal of time, as every farmer 
knows, is wasted in trying to pitch with a fork, cornstalks which have been 
broken, from badly bound bundles. Willow bands, properly put on, would 
save all this trouble. The osier, or more properly called salix purpurea, 
may be obtained of many nurserymen, in the form of cuttings, and each 
cutting a foot long, and two or three years old, or even younger, will soon 
make a tree, if set in rich, mellow ground, upland or otherwise, provided 
the soil is well cultivated before setting out and for a few years afterwards. 

FIELD CULTURE OF THE ONION.—The following practical direc¬ 
tions are given by Henry Pearcy: 

The kind of soil.— The soil I prefer is a good sandy loam. 

Preparation. —If you have some very rotten manure free from weed 


THE FARM. 


93 


seed, apply forty or fifty two-horse wagon loads to the acre. If you are not 
sure your manure is free, or nearly free from weed seeds, you had better 
not apply it, for there will always be an abundance of weeds at best. In 
place of manure use two hundred bushels of leached ashes to the acre, and 
plow six inches deep, and then drag and pulverize the ground well; then 
roll with a light roller to mash lumps, and drag again or rake to make light 
and fine on the surface. The past year I used a fine-toothed drag, that 
cut once in two and a half inches, behind the roller, so the ground was 
finished at one operation. 

The kind of seed and quantity. —The kinds that I have raised most 
are the Yellow Danvers and Large Red, principally the latter. The amount 
of seed per acre will depend on the knowledge one has of its age. I pre¬ 
fer to sow as near three lbs. to the acre as possible, if I know the seed was 
raised the year previous; if not sure apply more. Last year the writer saw 
an acre of onions on which there was only three-fourths of a pound of seed 
put, but the onions were not a third as thick as I generally leave them. 

Sowing. —The time I recommend sowing onion seed is just as early as 
the ground can be properly fitted in the spring. In sowing it is best to drop 
a seed as often as one an inch, so as to have plenty to come up. If the seed 
are sown by hand, they had better be mixed with sand or plaster, so that 
they can be sown without danger of getting too thick. I prefer a drill to 
sow with, because it sows evener than any person can possibly by hand. In 
regulating a drill to sow, it is best to try it on a floor, with a slide in the 
drill that you think about right; if it sows too thick—which you can readily 
see by counting the seed dropped—substitute the slide in the drill by plac¬ 
ing one with a smaller hole, and so experiment till the right quantity is 
dropped. Cover the seed one-half inch in heavy loam soil, and three-fourths 
of an inch or more in light soil, and roll it smooth. Sow the rows sixteen to 
eighteen inches apart, as that is near enough if they grow rank, and it is 
handier to weed when that distance, after the onions get large. 

After culture.—B y all means start a hoe or some weed-cutter as soon 
as the onions are large enough to see the rows. Some recommend sowing 
radishes with the onions so as to follow the rows more readily. 

When the onions are up to four or six inches, thin to one inch if the 
ground is very rich ; if medium, to two inches; if poor, to three or four 
inches. One inch may seem to make near neighbors, but the writer has 
practiced that plan on first-class soil, and found the onions to get plenty 
large enough. I have had them yield five bushels to the rod, for a number 
of rods in succession, but from two to three bushels is a good average. Any 
time after sowing seed, give as a top dressing (before a rain if possible) 
equal parts of plaster and hen manure, at the rate of four quarts to the 


94 


brand’s cyclopedia 


square rod; and through the season another dressing, the same, or unleach¬ 
ed ashes, at the rate of one peck to the square rod. 

Charcoal is also an excellent dressing for onions, or if a person has plen¬ 
ty, it would be a good plan to powder it as fine as possible, and apply be¬ 
fore plowing. Ever bear in mind to keep the weeds down. 

I am aware that some onion-raisers recommend breaking down the tops 
when the bulb is nearly grown, thinking that it will bottom better. I have 
always considered that a “ granny ” notion, and let the tops fall naturally. 

Harvesting. —When a majority of the tops are withered down I take a 
potatoe hook and carefully pull the onions, let them lay on the ground till 
cured, then cut the tops off and market, if the market suits; if not, it is 
better to place them on a barn floor or some dry place. 

Raising seed. —In raising seed always pick out the largest or medium 
sized onions, as near the same shape a possible. When the time arrives 
for setting out, mark rows as wide as for corn, take a hoe and dig a trench 
three inches deep, and place the onions eight inches or more apart, and 
cover and press the ground well. A row of seed can be sown well enough 
between these wide rows, and will yield well. The object in placing the 
onion for seed so far apart, is that there may be plenty of room to keep out 
the weeds. I once planted some onions for seed with the rows not more 
than sixteen inches apart; the consequence was I could not get among 
them to weed; when large, up came the weeds and blasted the onion seed. 
When the seeds are black and begin to get hard, cut off the stalk six inches 
below the heads, and spread where they can dry; thresh out the seed, and 
clean as clean as possible with a fanning-mill; then place the seed in a pail 
of water and stir; the poor seed will arise, which skim off; then spread the 
seed that settled, in the sun or near a stove to dry, and I will warrant that 
you will have better seed than can be bought of nine out of every ten 
seedsmen. 

PASTURE— Mowing. —The Boston Cultivator says:—We have often 
spoken of the advantage of keeping pastures free from the dead grass 
which, where the crop is not fed off, will accumulate. After grass has gone 
to seed, it is refused by stock, and the patches where it lies will be left, 
even after a new growth is started. The old grass makes the new sour 
and unpalatable. To keep the grass sweet, the pasture should be smoothly 
cleared off at least once a year. On a late visit to the farm of the Rev. C. 
C. Sewall, of Medfield, he called the attention of the writer and other per¬ 
sons to some hay which he had cut in the pastures. Finding, after many 
years’ experience, that during the flush of feed in the fore part of the sea¬ 
son, his cows would leave certain places almost untouched, and which 
were, consequently, about lost, so far as yielding any return, he mowed 
them, obtaining a considerable quantity of hay. 


THE FARM. 


95 


PLOWS—To keep bright.— The moment the plow comes from the 
held after use—for every good farmer brings his plow in after his job is 
done, and does not leave it in the held—grease the bright mould-board, 
and other parts, with any kind of cheap grease, which has no salt in it, or 
with lamp oil. The latter may be best where mice frequent, unless a little 
arsenic is worked in with the grease, which will soon settle all accounts with 
these vermin. 

PEAS— Harvesting.— There are three methods of harvesting held peas. 
—ist, by what is termed rolling, or the most improved mode of cutting 
with the scythe,, consisting merely of cutting and rolling over the increas¬ 
ing cut portion like a snow-ball, until a bunch is made large enough for 
a forkfull; this is rather a slow mode. The second mode is simply 
pulling them with a common horse-rake, leaving them in winrows; but 
there must be a strip of unpulled peas under every winrow, which makes 
pitching slow and laborious. The third, and best way, is to pull them with 
a horse rake, but instead of forming a common winrow, drive the horse 
one side on the cleaned ground, as soon as the rake is full, and empty it 
there; then drive into the peas and fill it again. This requires more turn¬ 
ing the horse, but is on the whole the most economical of labor. 

PORK —Making. —In one respect, farmers commonly show the worst of 
their management in fattening hogs. These animals appreciate and enjoy 
cleanliness, yet their owners make them live in dirt, and then charge them 
with a fondness for filth. This is oppression and slander combined. Every 
person familiar with their habits, knows that when clean straw beds and other 
comforts are given them, they are scrupulous to keep them clean. When 
shut up in a narrow pen, where they must eat, sleep and live in one apart¬ 
ment, they cannot but be uncomfortable; and such a condition greatly 
retards their thriving. A “ hog pen ” has become proverbially a repulsive 
place; this is the owner’s fault, and should never be suffered. There is no 
reason why it should not be neat and attractive. We hear farmers who raise 
grain say they have more straw than they can use, while at the same moment 
their fattening hogs have not enough of it to make a dry and clean bed. 

Animals can never thrive well unless kept clean. The rule applies to 
swine as well as to horses. Every one knows that a well groomed horse is 
better than a neglected one with a shabby coat. Nearly the same result 
has been found when this treatment is applied to swine. Let every mana¬ 
ger lay down this rule, that a hog pen should never be distinguished by its 
odor twenty feet distant. The sleeping apartments should be separate, and 
be perfectly clean and dry. The other portion should be cleaned out at 
least twice a day, and the manure at once mixed with muck, loam, coal 
ashes, etc., to make compost and destroy the odor, which is as injurious to 


96 


brand's cyclopedia. 



the health of swine to breathe, as it is to men and women. It is not nec¬ 
essary that a piggery should cost five hundred dollars that it may be kept in 
splendid order; a cheap and simple structure may be subjected to the most 
perfect system of cleanliness. 

The satisfaction it will afford to the owner, the comfort to the occupant,, 
and the profits to the purse, will be a three-fold compensation. 

POSTS, OLD— Drawing out.— When an old fience or gate-way is to be 
removed, it is often quite a task to draw the posts from the ground. The 
common way is to dig away the earth for a foot or two downward, and then 
pass a chain around the post and around a stout rail or a large lever, which 
is used for drawing out the post. In some instances the insertion of the point 

of a crowbar into the side of a post is suffici¬ 
ent for lifting it. Both these modes are slow; 
a more easy and rapid one, using ox power 
instead of human strength, which has long 
Fig. 103.— Drawing posts. been in use in some places, is to attach a 

sufficient amount of chain to the oxen at one end and to the post at the 
other, place a stout prop between, with its top inclining towards the post, 
and then let the animals draw—(fig. 103.) 

POSTS— Sagging of.— Every farmer knows what a sagging gate is, and 
the inconvenience arising from the same. A new gate is built. All goes 
well the first summer, but he finds after the next spring, that the latch 
strikes too low, and will not catch in the socket. Afterwards the usage it 
receives is not the easiest, and in the end the hinges are broken, and the 
gate lies on the ground. 

A commonly recommended mode of obviating the difficulty is shown in 

fig. 104, a trench being cut between the 
posts directly under the gate and a piece of 
durable timber, such as a white oak rail, a 
locust pole, or a cedar scantling, laid in and 
compactly covered with earth. The nearer 
to the surface, the better will be the bracing 





Fig. 104. 


which it will afford; the deeper it is buried, the longer will it last. We 
therefore think that the more durable the wood is the better, and place it 
near the surface. This mode of bracing accomplishes the desired purpose 
partially. Unless the earth is very hard and firm at the 
lower part of the post, it will slowly yield to the outward 
pressure, and in process of time the bottom will be 
thrown out, as shown in fig. 107, and the gate will settle 
on the ground. A more thorough mode therefore is to 
dig a deep trench and lay in two connecting pieces, as 
















THE FARM. 


97 



shown in fig. 106. The bottom one must be dove-tailed into the bottom 
of the posts, to prevent spreading, and a pin or a few spikes in addition 
will render the connection firmer. This lower timber, being excluded from 
air and changes of moisture, will last an age, and the upper one only being 
likely to decay, will need replacing. By this mode the gate will be sure to 
keep its place. But it is attended with considerable labor, and an easier 
mode, shown in fig. 105, will answer nearly or quite as well. Take two 
pieces of durable timber, 

(short posts, or an oak or 
P*chestnut rail sawed in two,) 
and place the ends against 

Fig. 106. the post in the manner rep- Fig. 107. 

resented, beating the earth firmly about them. If only three or four feet long, 
they can never be moved a hair’s breath by sliding endwise in the soil 
when firmly placed. Some would prefer to place them across the post, 
but this is quite a mistake, as earth will thus yield by hard and continued 
pressure; while no practicable force could move them in the slightest 
degree endwise. It often happens that such pieces of durable timber are 
found on every farm, and a moderate degree of labor will cut a short, deep 
trench on the outer side, and a shallow one on the inner, and firmly place 
them in position. 

POSTS— Gas tar for. —This application is far better than the old mode 
of charring, and is much more easily applied. Charring only affects the 
outside, admitting moisture in the interior, and rotting it; the tar, if applied 
hot to well-seasoned posts, entirely excludes moisture. 

POSTS— Durability of. —A correspondent of an Agricultural paper 
reports an experiment on the durability of posts, which we arrange and 
condense. The timber used was “ yellow oakit was cut in winter, and 
each log was large enough to split into two bar-posts, which were set the 


following spring. 

ist Pair. —Butt end down, one charred. Both rotted off the third 
year; the upper ends were then put in the ground, and they lasted seven 
years more. 

2D Pair. —Butt end down, one salted by poring and plugging; salted 
post gave out the second year; the unsalted the fourth year. The ends 
were then reversed, and each lasted about eight years longer 

3D PaiR.—One butt end down, the other butt up. The butt rotted off 
the third year; the other the fourth. The ends were reversed, and the new 
butt rotted one year before the other, although the latter was set one year 
the soonest. 


6 












9 8 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


4th Pair. —Small ends down, one salted. Both rotted off the fourth 
year ; and being reversed, lasted four years more. 

It will be seen that the charring did no good, and salting a green post is 
useless, if not injurious. All the experiments indicate decidedly that posts 
set reversed last longest; and it appears that seasoned posts last longer 
than green—the seasoned small ends in the first experiment lasting about 
twice as long as the green small ends in the fourth. 

POTATOES—How to drop.— Most farmers, when dropping potatoes, 
render hard work more laborious and fatiguing 
by the tiresome manner of carrying the basket. 
By having a basket suspended by a wide strap 
around the neck, as shown by the illustration 
accompanying this article (fig. 108,) both hands 
will be free to drop potatoes ; and the aching of 
arms, so much complained of, when a basket is 
carried in the usual manner, is entirely avoided. 
Moreover when the basket of potatoes is sus¬ 
pended by a strap, a laborer will be able to drop 
the seed with far greater rapidity than if he car¬ 
ries the basket on his arm, as he can then drop with each hand. An active 
man will usually drop the seed in two drills about as fast as the person by 
his side, who carries his basket on his arm, can drop in one drill or row. 

When plucking apples from the trees, by suspending the basket from the 
neck, as illustrated, a person may clamber in the tree-tops with far greater 
facility than with a basket in hand, or hung on branches by means of hooks. 
A piece of stiff wire may be used for making the hooks required at the 
ends of the strap. On a high ladder, or in a tall tree-top, a person should 
have the free use of both • hands, both for plucking fruit and holding him¬ 
self in place. 

POTATOES— Early. —Potatoes may be planted as soon as the frost is 
out of the ground, and will not be injured if white frost does come after 
they are up. We make a gain of at least one week in early garden pota¬ 
toes, by starting them in the end of a hot-bed, setting them out in rows in 
open ground after they are furnished with green leaves. In one case a 
white frost cut the tops afterwards, but there were enough left for the plants 
to grow and give a good crop. They might be protected by newspapers 
when frost is threatened. The cut pieces were placed in contact in the 
hot-bed, and buried an inch or two in depth. 

POTATOES— Planted deep. —We tried the experiment one year, on 
several alternate rows of potatoes, about thirty rods long, of planting apart 
about two or three inches deep, and another part five inches deep. The 



Fig. 108.—Potato Dropper. 


THE FARM. 


99 

latter invariably produced about 20 to 25 per cent, more potatoes, the treat¬ 
ment in every other respect being the same. They were cultivated flat, 
which always gives more than when ridged. 

POTATOES— Keeping in winter.— Potatoes spoil in winter if buried, 
from three causes. First and greatest, want of ventilation. Secondly, and 
nearly allied, dampness. Thirdly, and more rarely, freezing. Farmers find 

most of their potatoes spoiled at the top 
of the' heap, where they suppose they be¬ 
came frozen; but this is not the usual 
cause, the damp, foul, steamy air ascend¬ 
ed there, and could not escape, and this 
spoiled them. A hole made in the top, 
with a crowbar, and closed with a wisp 
Fig 109. Section of Potato Heap, of straw, would have allowed egress to 
the confined air, and saved the potatoes. The best way to secure potatoes 
out-doors, is to make large heaps, say fifty or sixty bushels; see that they 
are dry and clean, by digging before wet weather comes on; cover them all 
over with one foot of packed straw, and three inches of earth. The straw 
will prevent dampness, and the few inches of earth will favor ventilation. A 
farmer who raises many potatoes, and practices this mode, does not lose a 
peck, on an average, in fifty bushels. One of the best preventives of rot¬ 
ting that we know of, is in having the potatoes perfectly clean before storing 
away for winter. Dry weather should be selected for this operation, when 
the earth has not been soaked with heavy rains, but if mud cannot be 

avoided, great care should be taken to remove 
it. To do this, the best plan is to spread them 
on a barn floor, and they will dry in a few 
days. The revolving box, represented in the 
engraving, answers a splendid purpose—the 
earth and dust dropping through the slits be¬ 
tween the boards. One of these boards being 
hinged and buttoned, admits the potatoes. The 
motion should be moderate, to prevent bruis¬ 
ing. A more perfect way is to provide a longer 
Fig. no. Revolving Box. revolving trough placed in a stream, where it 
will rapidly wash the tubers in a thorough manner. 

POTATOES— Marking. —Farmers would save one-fourth of their price 
by separating the large from the small before sending them to market; the 
small potatoes only fill up the crevices, and lessen the value of the whole, 
while when separted, the large ones bring a better price, and the small ones 
left are of considerable value. 








TOO 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


POULTRY HOUSES—How to keep them pure. —Built of brick or 
stone, poultry houses are apt to be damp. Of wood they are not always 
warm enough. But the following is a cheap and excellent mode, the walls 
scarcely allowing the frost to pass. Nail common inch boards vertically; 
batten with two-inch strips on the joints, outside and inside. Then nail on 
the inside battens a complete coating of the felt commonly used on roofs 
under the slate—this felt is very cheap, and a few dollars will line a whole 

house. [Hollow walls for a Poultry House, 
#, outside battens; b , outside boarding ; c , 
middle battens; d, felt; e , inner batten; /, 
Fi g- Iir * lath and plastering.] Then batten again, 

and lath and plaster on these inner battens. Or boarding may be used 
instead of lathing and plastering if desired. Here will be two spaces of 
air in the wall, rendering it an uncommonly good non-conductor, at mod¬ 
erate cost. To exclude mice, fill the space at the bottom six inches with 
sifted ashes or cement. 

In a country residence, we find a good position for the hen-house on the 
division line between the house-yard and the barn-yard. The entrance 
door for the attendant is from the house-yard; but the opening for the 
fowls is into the barn-yard, where they can scratch and pick up scattered 
grain among the straw and fodder. 

Every one knows that a brick or flagging floor is too cold in winter for 
such barefoot individuals as fowls. But a correspondent says he makes a 
good floor of soil, four inches thick, on a floor of flags. When the drop¬ 
pings fall on a smooth floor, it is impossible to keep the house sweet, as 
the odor taints the room before they can be swept out. But when they fall 
on a bed of fresh soil, most of the odor is absorbed. In one corner of the 
house, away from under the roosts, is a pile of good fresh garden soil. 
Every day a few shovelfuls are pread over the floor. The drier this soil, the 
better it will absorb. 

RACKS— Hay and grain. —A correspondent in Indiana has requested 
directions for constructing a rack or frame for placing on an ordinary farm 

wagon, to draw hay and grain upon. There 
are many modes of construction, variously 
known and adopted in different localities, 
and possessing various advantages and 
defects. Among them we have selected 
two already well known to many of our readers, but doubtless new to others, 
and which, on the whole, are perhaps as good as any that are used. 

Fig. n 2 represents a strong frame, the only objection to which is its 
weight, and the consequent inconvenience of placing and removing it from 











THE FARM. 


IOI 



the wagon. It consists, first, of a bottom frame (forming the foundation 
or base,) just wide enough to fit within the stakes of the wagon, made of 
two side pieces ten inches wide, two inches thick, and about thirteen feet 
long; these are connected at the ends by cross-pieces morticed through 
them. On this frame rest three curved cross-timbers, about four inches 
square and six and a half or seven feet long—the curve may be about six 
inches, or enough for the boards that rest on them to clear the wheels—if 
the curve is less, the bottom frame must be wider. These timbers support 

two boards on each side, each board an 
inch thick and six inches wide, and about 
thirteen feet long, or as long as the rack. 
Stiff, curved iron straps span from one 
Fig. 113. board to the other over the forward wheels, 

to prevent the hay from resting on the tire. This frame or rack may be 
modified by making the bottom frame five or six inches wider, and using 
straight instead of curved cross-timbers, but this will make it heavier, and 
the load will not rest so securely upon it. 

Fig. 113 exhibits a lighter and more perfect frame, but requiring more 
labor in construction. The eight upright pins or standards, connecting a 
light foundation frame with a lighter one above, renders the whole so man¬ 
ageable that it may be easily placed upon or removed from the wagon. 
The cross-timbers (consisting of only one at each end,) need not be so 
much curved—a curvature of three inches is sufficient, and they will be 
large enough if two and one-half by four inches; their length may be 
about six and one-half feet, or, if the rack is large, seven feet. The bot¬ 
tom frame may be made of three by five inch stuff, twelve feet six inches 
long, and the top frame two by three stuff. An inch board a foot wide 
goes all around the top, the extreme length of which is about fourteen feet. 
In both these racks the bottom frame must be made just wide enough to 
fit within the upright stakes of the wagon, which is usually about three feet 
two or three inches. The short ladder placed at the forward end, to pre¬ 
vent the load from falling forward, and to fasten the reins to during the 
operation of loading, should be about four feet high. 

Another form of construction, is first to make a foundation frame of side 
pieces about two by eight inches, connected together by four cross-bars 
morticed into them, nearly as already described, the cross-bars being of 
white oak or other hard wood, into which oblique mortices are cut on each 
side, within the side pieces. These oblique mortices receive sloping side 
frames, which complete the rack—the feet of the side frames being thrust 
into the oblique mortices, and the frame resting against the top of the 
foundation frame. This rack is not so substantial as the preceding, but as 









102 


brand’s cyclopedia 


the side frames are taken out and put in separately, one person may more 
easily place the whole on the wagon. 

RAIN GAUGE.—The simplest rain gauge is a square or cylindrical ves¬ 
sel, open at top, with a scale marked inside to show the depth of the water 
as the rain falls. The depth of rains may be nearly measured by simply 
placing out, on an open piece of ground, a tin pail with parallel sides, and 
then measuring the depth with a small, thin rule. It is more common, as 
well as convenient and accurate, however, to make the top of the gauge 
somewhat in the form of a hopper, throwing the rain together down a grad¬ 
uated tube. The depth being thus multiplied, the amount fallen can be 
more perfectly measured. If, for example, the tube is one-tenth the area 
of the hopper, a fall of one inch will show ten inches in depth; or if the 
tube is a hundred times smaller than the hopper, a tenth of an inch of rain 
will give a ten inch column. In all gauges of this kind, which multiply the 
depth, it is safest to have a small cylindrical vessel attached to the side of 
the instrument to show the fall in case of a great storm, which might more 
than fill the narrow tube. There are various modifications of rain gauges— 
one is made by using a funnel placed in the mouth of a jug or bottle, into 
which all the water immediately runs. It is then poured into a graduated 
tube and accurately measured. If the quantity will more 
than fill the tube, it may be measured by successive por¬ 
tions. The most convenient way of placing this gauge, is 
first to sink a small barrel into the ground, cover it with a 
wooden board so made as to throw the rain from the centre, 
Fl S- Ir 4 * where a hole is made just large enough to receive the fun¬ 
nel. The bottle or jug for holding the water is placed in the barrel below 
the funnel. In the accompanying figure, a represents the barrel, b the 
board cover, c the funnel, d the bottle, and e the graduated glass tube, which 
may be kept when not in use in the barrel. 

Fig. 115 represents a modification of the gauge 
already spoken of, having the tube, a , attached to 
the funnel, b , both of which may be made of brass 
or tin plate. A convenient mode for setting this 
gauge -is to set a short wooden post into the 
ground, projecting a few inches above it, and then 
bore a hole in the top of the post the size of the Fig. 11 5 - 

funnel, an inch or two downward to receive it, and then another hole, a 
little smaller, deep enough to receive the tube. The depth of the water in 
the tube is accurately measured with a thin whalebone scale. This should 
be divided by experiment, by placing equal and successive quantities of 
water in the tube, which will correct any inequalties in the bore. If a heavy 









THE FARM. IO3 

rain should more than fill the tube, the excess should be poured off and 
afterwards measured. 

In placing the rain gauge, an open piece of ground should be selected, 
where buildings or trees will not affect the quantity when blown by side 
winds, and it should be within a few inches of the surface of the ground, 
where the fall is less affected by currents. 

RAIN— Signs of. —Of these every farmer knows something, but the 
most infallible of them all is the feeling of the atmosphere itself. This can¬ 
not be described, but no man is insensible to it. When the cattle sniff the 
air, and gather together in a corner of a field, with their heads to leeward, or 
take shelter in the sheds; when sheep leave their pastures with reluctance i 
when goats go to sheltered spots ; when asses bray frequently and shake 
their ears; when dogs lie much about the fireside and appear drowsy; 
when cats turn their backs to the fire and wash their faces; when pigs 
cover themselves more than usual in litter; when cocks crow at unusual 
hours and flap their wings much; when hens chant; when ducks and geese 
are unusually clamorous , when pigeons wash themselves; when peacocks 
squall loudly from trees; when the guinea-fowl makes an incessant grating 
clamor; when sparrows chirp loudly and clamorously congregate on the 
ground or in the hedge; when swallows fly low, and skim their wings on 
account of flies upon which they feed having descended toward the ground; 
when the carrion-crow croaks solitarily; when water wild-fowl dip and 
wash unusually; when moles throw up hills more industriously than usual; 
when toads creep out in numbers ; when frogs croak; when bats squeak 
and enter houses; when singing birds take shelter; when the robin 
approaches nearest the dwelling of man ; when tame swans fly against the 
wind ; when bees leave their hives with caution, and fly short distances; 
when ants carry their eggs busily; when flies bite severely, and become 
troublesome in numbers'; when earth-worms appear on the surface. 

ROOT —Cellars above ground. —Root cellars may be easily made 
above ground, that will afford sufficient protection to roots through winter— 
the requisites being thick non-conducting walls and roof. These walls may 
be made of different materials, according to circumstances. When lumber 
is abundant, posts may be set, inclosing the space desired for the roots, 
and another parallel row to form a double wall. If straw or forest leaves 
are used for filling in, the space should be two feet—if sawdust or chaff is 
used, one foot will do. Board up these posts, and ram in dry straw (if chop¬ 
ped it will be better,) dry forest leaves, etc. A sloping or double roof should 
be made on rafters with boards, and second rafters placed a foot and a half 
or two feet above. Then fill in between them with straw or leaves. If chaff 
is used, the space need not be so great as for straw; and if the leaves are 


104 


brand’s cyclopedia 


dry and smoothly placed, a foot thickness will do, as they form layers or 
strata, with thin inclosed plates of air, and are very good non-conductors 
of heat (or cold.) Then cover the whole with a board roof, to throw off 
the water, and the building is complete. A door made double and similarly 
stuffed, admits the roots. When lumber is scarce, build a double log struc¬ 
ture, and fill in the space as before—or, if the stuffing should be scarce, 
build a single wall, and bank up heavily with earth or turf. The roof may 
be made of poles instead of boards laid closely enough to hold the leaves 
or straw, but the water soaking in will soon rot it, and it must be renewed. 
The bottom must be made of poles, a foot from the ground, so as to admit ven¬ 
tilation from below, to keep the roots dry, and allow air to circulate among 
them, and to allow the soil from them the fall through. There are many mod¬ 
ifications that might be made, but the main essentials are to be preserved, 
viz: to allow the warmth to pass up from the earth below, and to shut out 
cold from the sides, but more especially from the roofs. 

ROOTS— Harvesting. —In harvesting turnips, carrots, etc., a great 
deal of time may be saved by cutting off the tops before they are removed 
from the soil, by means of a small, light hoe, ground as sharp as a knife. 
Turnips are most quickly removed by a two-pronged tool in form of a hoe, 
placed under them. If carrots have been planted in straight drills, plow¬ 
ing a deep, even furrow close to and away from the row, will facilitate the 
work. 

CROPS— Rotation of. —It is surprising how much more some men 
will accomplish by dint of good management and shrewd thinking, than 
others will by dint of hard and laborious toil. A good story is told of a 
“ backwoods ” farmer, in whose fields the stumps and his crops held each 
a sort of doubtful jurisdiction, and who was very much annoyed by 
the difficulties in contending with these stubborn representatives of the 
original forest oaks. His boys complained much of the annoyances they 
met with in plowing and harrowing—the old-fashioned drag especially gave 
them great trouble by its constant overturning while plunging among the 
stumps ; once in each ten yards of the traveling on an average they were 
obliged to stop and place it “ right side up.” “ Boys! ” said the father one 
day, when his patience had become exhausted, “ take that harrow over to 
Hammerwell, the blacksmith, and tell him to make the teeth all twice their 
present length, and sharp at both ends, and we shall see what we can do!” 
It was accordingly done, and the harrow came back with its teeth as surely 
pointing both directions as those of a revolving horse-rake. “ Now, boys, 
we will try the new harrow,” and it was accordingly set in motion. “ Why, 
father,” soon exclaimed one of the sons, “ it has upset again, just as bad 
as before!” “Never mind, go right on without stopping, it will work 


THE FARM. 


105 


either side up.” The difficulty was conquered; and the harrowing was 
speedily accomplished, and without the innumerable delays of “ righting 
the ship.” 

We have seen some very industrious and worthy farmers whose labors 
we could not help comparing with this continued toil with the harrow; and 
others, again, whose skillful management was fully equal to the double act¬ 
ing, double-toothed pulverizer. And in nothing was this difference more 
vividly exemplified than in the arrangement and rotation of crops. 

There are other very important requisites in good farming, but they are 
all accomplished with an increase of'expenditure and labor. Manuring, 
for example, is a most powerful means for improvement; but both manures 
and their application are expensive in proportion to the amount applied. 
Underdraining has wrought wonderful results, but the cost is always a large 
item, and the same may be said in some degree of deep plowing and sub¬ 
soiling. But in the arrangement of a rotation, no additional expenditure 
or labor is necessary; it costs no more to cultivate crops which are made 
to succeed each other judiciously, than to cultivate those arranged in the 
worst manner possible. The former may bring tripple the successful results 
of the latter—not by the expenditure of five hundred extra days in drawing 
manure, or five hundred dollars worth of ditching ; but simply by making 
a proper use of one’s brain. 

It most fortunately happens that no extraordinary originality, shrewdness, 
or profound wisdom is needed to render available all the advantages of a 
well devised rotation. The full experience of others is furnished directly to 
our hands, in the excellent practical publications which have appeared on 
this subject; and all we have to do is to make use of the materials right 
before us. It seems surprising, under the circumstances, that so small a 
number seize the golden prize thus completely placed within their reach— 
that there are so few, even of those reckoned good farmers, who pursue 
anything.like a systematic succession, to say nothing of such a rotation that 
shall accomplish its peculiarly beneficial results, namely, preservation of the 
riches of the soil, destruction of weeds, destruction of insects, and the 
most advantageous consumption by each successive crop of all the means 
for its growth within reach. As a consequence of this neglect, we see land 
overcropped with wheat, the soil worn out for this particular grain, and 
those troublesome weeds, chess and red-root, taking its place. We see 
pastures, left unplowed for a long series of years, become filled with “ but¬ 
tercups ” and ox-eye daisy. A disproportion of spring crops facilitates the 
spread of wild mustard, and among insects, grubs and wire worms increase 
according to the cultivation that favors their labors. It appears to be but 
little understood how great is the assistance to clean cultivation afforded by 


io 6 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


a good rotation. The best example of this sort we ever witnessed, where 
every field of the symmetrically laid-out farm, except a wet meadow was 
brought under a regular, unvarying system, scarcely a weed was ever to be 
seen; and we ascertained that not one-third of the labor usually expended, 
was required for the hand-dressing of hoed crops. The alternation was 
such that the whole operated like a two-faced harrow—the culture of each 
successive crop constantly tended to the destruction of some weed injuri¬ 
ous to another, and thus all were destroyed in their respective turns ; while 
at the same time the fertility of the land was increased and each crop fed 
with its own proper nutriment as its turn came round. 

Systems of rotation must vary according to the nature of the soil in dif¬ 
ferent regions of country, the amount and kind of manure at command, 
the cleanness of the land, the nature of the market, and the proper distri¬ 
bution of labor. One of the best farmers we have known, had his farm 
laid out in equal fields, and adopted the following rotation: 

ist year—Wheat after clover. 

2d “ Corn, potatoes and ruta bagas, with all the manure made 

that year. 

3d “ Barley. 

4th “ Wheat, seeded with clover. 

5th “ Clover pastured. 

A piece of low ground was kept for meadow, and was occasionally top- 
dressed, and rarely broken up and reseeded. A rougher portion of the 
farm was occupied with summer-fallow, wheat, clover, and grass for pasture. 
This farm was a strong fertile soil; poorer land would need a longer sea¬ 
son in grass, which would admit a larger number of live stock, and as a 
consequence produce a greater amount of manure. 

The following may be adopted, with variations according to circumstances: 

THREE COURSE SYSTEM. 

1. Corn and roots, well manured. 

2. Wheat. 

3. Clover—one or more years, according to fertility and amount of 
manure at hand. 

FOUR COURSE SYSTEM. 

1. Corn and roots, with all the manure. 

2. Barley, or peas, or both. 

3. Wheat. 

4. Clover—one or more years. 

Oats are always a severe crop, and an excellent farmer of our acquaint¬ 
ance who adopts the above, never permits oats to grow on good wheat land, 
but confines the crop to the more moist portions of his farm, adapted only 
to this and to meadow and pasture. 


THE FARM. 


10/ 


DAIRY DISTRICTS— Rotation of crops for. —In a strictly dairy re¬ 
gion of country, the production of the grass crop—pasture and meadow—is 
the one great subject of interest; consequently the rotation of crops, the profits 
of grain raising, etc., attract but little interest. If we keep our cows well, 
all we care to sell is our butter and cheese. If our meadows fail we plow 
them, taking up the parts most run out, plant corn on the sod, and seed 
down the next year with oats or barley, so that each year we have Indian 
corn and oats or barley to feed to our cows; and we buy our flour. Some 
dairymen, it is true, sell their coarse feed, but the dairy suffers, no doubt, to 
a certain extent. 

RURAL ECONOMY— Short rules in. —1. Paint all tools exposed to 
the weather, and if with a light colored paint they will heat, warp and crack 
the least in the sun. 

2. Dip well seasoned shingles in lime, wash and dry them before laying, 
and they will last much longer, and not become covered with moss. 

3. In hitching a horse to a common rail or worm fence, always select the 
inside corner, which will be more secure by its bracing position, and the 
halter will not become tangled among the projecting ends of the rails, as 
when hitched to an outside or projecting corner. 

4. Always tie the halter by making first a single loop and then thrusting 
the end of the halter through this loop. This is quickly untied, and will 
never become untied of itself. 

5. Dip the tips of nails in grease, and they will easily drive into any hard 
wood, where otherwise they would double and break. 

6. In screwing nuts into any part of machinery, in cold weather, be care¬ 
ful not to heat them first by the hands, or they will contract, after being 
screwed on tight and become immovable afterwards. 

7. In plowing or teaming on the road in hot weather, always rest the 
horses on an eminence where they may receive the cool breeze, and where 
one minute will be worth two in a warm valley. 

8. In setting out young orchards always register the varieties immedi¬ 
ately in a book, where they may be referred to in a few years when the 
trees commence bearing and after the labels are lost and the names for¬ 
gotten. 

9. In laying out gardens for fruits and vegetables, place everything in 
drills or rows, so that they may be cultivated by a horse, and thus save the 
expense of hand labor. 

10. Plant a patch of osier willows on every farm. A rod square will fur¬ 
nish as many bands for binding cornstalks, straw, etc., as an acre of rye 
straw. 

11. Remove every stone from the track in the highway. A single pro- 


io8 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


jection, which might have been removed in one minute, has battered and 
injured a thousand wagons, at a damage equal to a hundred days’ labor. 

12. When board fences become old, and the boards begin to come off, 
nail upright facing strips upon them against each post, and the boards will 
be held to their place, and the fence will last several years longer. 

13. Always set a post fence over a ditch, or near good drainage, and the 
posts, always remaining dry, will last many years longer than those stand¬ 
ing in wet sub-soil. 

14. In writing on wooden labels or marking sticks, with a common pen¬ 
cil, if the wood is first wet, the mark will last two years; if written on dry, 
one or two rains will wash it all away. 

15. Always keep a supply of copper wire on hand, of different sizes, for 
repairing tools—it is greatly superior to either twine or iron wire. 

16. Every farmer should have a neat tool room, against the smooth walls 
of which a suitable place should be provided for hanging up every tool. An 
accurate outline of each tool should be painted on the wall, to remind every 
man of its absence, when left out of place. 

17. Oil paint, applied to houses and barns, out-buildings and fences, will 
last much longer, and harden better, if put on as late as the middle of 
autumn, instead of during the heat of summer. 

18. Every bin and granary should have a scale, or upright row of figures 
marked inside, showing accurately the number of bushels to fill it up to 
each figure. This will enable the farmer to know at a glance how much 
grain he has raised, or has on hand. 

RUST— Preventing. —Plows should be kept bright and ready for use in 
spring. These, as well as all cutting tools, may be preserved from rust by 
a very thin coating of grafting wax—which will be very convenient for all 
those who are in the practice of doing their own grafting. Those who have 
no grafting wax may take three parts of lard and one of rosin and melt 
them together. This will make an application more easily applied than the 
wax, and which will answer an excellent purpose. 

Sawing and threshing by horses.—S. E. Todd gives the following 
statement in the Country Gentleman of his success with an endless-chain 
two-horse power: I can saw three cords of wood per hour with two horses, 
with a circular saw; and with a drag saw, with no help but a boy ten years 
old, I sawed off logs twenty-six inches in diameter in seventy-five seconds 
per log, including starting and stopping time; drive my grist-mill, clover 
machine and horse com-sheller, with which we can shell, clean and deliver 
in the bag, ready for market, seventy bushels of shelled com per hour; and 
by driving business a little, we could do more than this. But this is ordinary 
work, with an ordinary elevation of the power. 


THE FARM. 


IO9 


Two years ago I had a good crop of barley, and could not get it half in 
the bam; and so we would haul a load to the barn, and put the horses on 
the power, and thresh it about as quickly as we could pitch it up into the 
mow, and with the same help that was necessary to merely unload it. 

For several years past I have raised more or less buckwheat, and by 
having a horse power and thresher of my own, I was enabled to get my 
buckwheat all threshed before my neighbors had really thought of threshing 
theirs. Last fall was a very unfavorable autumn for securing buckwheat; 
but as soon as the buckwheat appeared at all dry, we could thresh; while 
my neighbors lost full one-half of their crop before they could possibly get 
it threshed. But this is not all. As my buckwheat was secured before it 
had become water-soaked, it would make much better flour, and millers 
were willing to pay from four to five cents more per bushel than they would 
pay for that which had been exposed to storms for several weeks. 

My thresher stands on the second floor of the barn, and the grain falls 
on the first floor. Therefore, all the help that is needed is a boy to keep 
away the straw, which a very small boy does with ease, and one to feed, and 
one to pitch the grain off the wagon. As. a general thing, I thresh my 
grain in the winter, when we have but little to do, and when we can use up 
the straw economically. 

SCALDING TUB.—An agricultural writer describes a very convenient 
scalding tub, as follows: It consists of a box twenty-four inches deep, thirty 
inches wide and four feet six inches long. One end is put in slanting at an 
angle of forty-five degrees. In the slanting end put five hard-wood rollers, 
one and a half inches in diameter. These rollers are held in their places 
by two hard-wood sticks two inches square, securely fastened to the sides of 
the box. The rollers should have considerable play, so as to turn easily. 
The timber used should be 1J inch pine. There are three advanta¬ 
ges of this box over the round tub—it being much cheaper, requires less 
water, and is labor-saving. One man can scald a three hundred pound 
hog alone, with as little hard lifting as two can in the old-fashioned tub. It 
should be made tight and strong. 

SEED, GRASS— Testing. —It is of great importance in seeding down 
to grass, to cover the whole ground with a dense coating of herbage, with 
no bare spots. To do this the seed must be good. It may have been injured 
by age or mouldiness, or have been imperfectly ripened. Hundreds of 
dollars may be lost by not knowing good from bad seed. To test it, count 
a given number of seeds, and sow them regularly in a pot or box of fine 
earth, covering them a fourth or half an inch deep, according to size, by 
sprinkling on fine earth. Keep them moist and warm, and count the num¬ 
ber that grow, or they may be sprouted between folds of moist cotton. 


no 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


SEED— Quantity required for an acre. 

Wheat, 

Rye, 

Oats, 

Barley, 

Peas, 

White Beans, 

Buckwheat, 

Corn, broadcast for fodder 
Corn, in drills for fodder, 

Corn, in hills. 

Broom Corn, 

Potatoes, . 

Beets, 

Carrots, 

Ruta Bagas, 

Millet, 

Clover, White, 

Clover, Red, 

Timothy, 

Orchard Grass, 

Red Top, 

Kentucky Blue Grass 
Mixed Lawn Grass 
Tobacco, . 


i 1-2 to 2 bushels, 
i 1-2 bushels. 

1 2-2 bushels. 

2 bushels. 

2 

1 1-2 
1-2 

4 

2 
4 

1-2 
IO 

3 
2 

3-4 
1-2 


to 3 bushels, 
bushels, 
bushel, 
bushels, 
to 3 bushels, 
to 8 quarts, 
bushel, 
to 15 bushels, 
pounds, 
pounds, 
pound, 
bushel. 
4 quarts. 

8 quarts. 

6 quarts. 

2 bushels. 

1 to 2 pecks. 

2 bushels. 

1 to 2 bushels. 

2 ounces. 

SHOVEL—How to handle a.— The illustration herewith given (fig. 

116) represents a laborer shoveling with the handle of 
the shovel across one knee, which is the fulcrum, the 
weight being on the shovel, and the power, the hand, 
near the end of the handle. By placing the handle 
across one knee, the shovel is driven into the material 
to be shoveled, by a forward motion of the body, 
which requires very little muscular force. Then, by a 
■p* m™., downward thrust of hand near the end of the handle, 

a Shovel Easily. the weight is raised one foot more, with the expendi¬ 
ture of a very limited amount of muscular force. 

This principle should be explained to boys and awkward laborers, both 
when they are pitching manure, or shoveling earth; and at the same time, 
the fatiguing labor of shoveling, or pitching away material with a tool hav¬ 
ing a short handle, should be fully explained. With a short handled fork 
or shovel, the labor must be performed almost entirely by muscular force, 
which causes great fatigue to perform but little work. There is another 
consideration worthy of notice, which is, when a laborer bends his body 
over to lift a shovelful of earth, the fatigue caused by only the motion of 
the body will frequently be fully equal to the fatigue produced by the labor 
performed. 

This thought, will doubtless be sufficient to prompt laborers, when 
shoveling or forking, not only to have tools of the most desirable form and 
dimensions, but to learn how to use them most effectively and with the least 
fatigue. 
















THE FARM. 


Ill 



STACKS— Propping. —A well and evenly built stack of hay, straw or 
cornstalks, will keep its place and stand perfectly erect. But bunglers often 
build stacks which settle to one side—a result which is almost sure to occur 
if the load is always driven on the same side in building ; or 
if the builder is not careful to place regular tiers of forkfulls, 
while he ascends, like the tiers of brick in building an edi- 
, fice. Stacks made in this way in a short time begin to nod, 
^in * badiy P buFlt an( ^ ^ ean some particular direction; the next step is to 
Stacks. thrust rails, in the form of props, against the lower side, to 
prevent further settling or upsetting. The points of these punch into the 
stack and very little good is done. A better way, well-known to some, is 
first to place a plank, slab or broad rail, agaist the side of the stack against 
which the prop may be set (fig. 117.) A slight notch may be cut, to pre¬ 
vent sliding. One prop thus .inserted, is worth half a dozen placed in the 
common way. 

STABLES— Damp. —A farmer discovered after taking possession of a 
newly purchased place, that his horses were becoming poor, diseased, and 
incapable of much labor. His cows became sickly, their milk diminished, 
the butter was bad, four lost their calves, and two died of scours. The 
dampness of the stable was the suspected cause. It was low, under trees 
with a northern aspect. It was replaced by another on a dryer spot, when 
the difficulty ceased. 

THISTLE DIGGER.—A well-known writer describes a useful implement 
for extirpating thistles and simple weeds from grass lands. It is easily 
made, cheap, and will last. A, (fig. 118) is the handle; B , the claws, 
between which the thistle is received; the curved iron for C, is the fulcrum 
by which a purchase is obtained for extracting the root. D, is 
an iron rod or bar, upon which the foot is placed to thrust the 
claws into the ground. In case the root of the thistle breaks, 
while endeavoring to extract it, the implement is inverted and 
the curved blade, E, which has a chisel-like end, is thrust into 
the ground in order to cut off the root some inches from the 
surface, and thus prevent it from vegetating when the ground 
is a little moist or loose This implement, in the hands of an 
active man, will take out a large number of plants. It makes 
sure work, and when the land is not overrun with the weeds, it 
Fig. 118. This- is the cheapest way to get rid of them. Boys like the sport of 
fie Digger, prying U p the plants and the implement should be made light 
and handy, so as to give them a play at “ the thistle business,” when they 
feel inclined. 

TIMBER —Cutting, time for. —We have long been satisfied that the 




112 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


best time to cut timber is in summer, provided it is not left in the log, but 
is immediately worked up into boards, rails, or whatever is intended. It 
dries rapidly, and becomes hard and sound. Cut and saw basswood in 
summer, and in a few weeks it will become thoroughly seasoned, and will 
finally harden so as to almost resemble horn. Cut it in winter, and it 
will be so long in seasoning as to become partly decayed before the process 
can be completed. No doubt the presence of the water or sap in great 
abundance in winter, and especially toward the latter part, hastens this incip 
ient decay. Rails cut and split in summer, and the bark peeled to hasten 
drying, have lasted twice as long as winter-cut rails. 

TIMBER LAND— Planting. —It is said that thirty years, at the present 
rate of cutting and slashing, will sweep off all trees fit for lumber east of 
the Mississippi. We must raise young timber. If we allow second growth 
to spring up, ten acres of fertile land, well managed, will supply a family 
with fuel; five more will fence a medium farm. On poorer soils, none will 
be required. It is to be cut once in twenty years. 

But in spontaneous growth, we have not a choice of the best timber—we 
have to take it as it comes, good and bad. It is better, also, to plant in 
rows, and then a wagon may be driven easily through any part, in drawing 
out the timber. Plant alternate rows of locust, chesnut, and European 
lark. If one does not happen to succeed well, the other will have a chance, 
and the land will still be occupied. 

By planting in rows and cultivating the trees while young, they will grow 
five or ten times as fast. They may alternate with hills of potatoes or beans 
on the start, and two rows of potatoes between each row of trees. The 
next two years the same, or keep the ground clean, mellow and bare. Then 
corn, if the trees don’t shade all the ground, as they probably will. 

Locust seed will not grow, unless boiling water is poured on, and allowed 
to remain some hours. The swollen seed will grow; the rest must be scalded 
again. Chesnuts mil not grow if the shell becomes dry—keep them moist 
from the first and they will. Both should be planted in hills like com, and 
thinned out, but not transplanted. European larch may be had cheaply 
from English nurseries. 

TIMBER— Raising young. —The rapid and almost entire disappear¬ 
ance of the original forests of the several States, and the great increase in 
price of timber, indicate the importance to every considerable land-owner, 
of allotting a portion of his farm to the growth of new timber. The fol¬ 
lowing rules should be observed. 

1. Where old woods are cut down the new growth will spring up the 
best by making a thorough clearing as far as any of the trees are cut. 

2. The young and dense growth which now springs up will afford much 


THE FARM. H3 

more and better timber by being properly thinned out and trimmed every 
few years—the part thus cut out proving a valuable crop each time. 

3. Different rules have been given as to the distances of thinning; but 
the more common opinion is that young trees should not be allowed to 
stand nearer together than one-third of their height. The thriftiest and 
straightest trees should always be left, and the distances asunder be nearly 
uniform. The superiority of timber-land thus treated, both in the amount 
and quality of the timber, over such as is entirely neglected, would be sur¬ 
prising to any one who had never before witnessed it. 

4. The most profitable period or age for cutting, as indicated by ample 
experience is about twenty years ; a less average yearly return will be 
obtained if shorter or longer periods are selected. Well managed timber 
land on medium soils will produce at this age about twenty cords per 
acre, or one cord per acre annually. A farmer therefore may obtain a sup¬ 
ply of fuel equal to twenty cords yearly from twenty acres of woodland; 
or an equal amount of more valuable timber. 

5. A larger amount and more valuable returns might be obtained from 
land specially planted in the first instance with the most valuable kinds of 
trees. They might be planted in the first place on cultivated soil, in alter¬ 
nating or occasional rows with com, or other drilled crops. The cultiva¬ 
tion given would cause a rapid growth while the trees are young; the thin¬ 
ning might be more systematically and perfectly performed; wagons could 
pass with perfect facility for drawing off the timber between the straight 
rows; and the rows, when once established, would remain perpetually, the 
trees sprouting up from the stumps at each cutting. 

THERMOMETERS.—Every house should be supplied with several 
thermometers. Apples will keep better in a cellar with a low tempera¬ 
ture, which may be maintained, if one or two thermometers are always at 
hand to indicate the approach of freezing. They are always of use in 
dairy and other departments. 

TOOL _A convenient. —A well known agricultural writer sends the 

description of a convenient stable tool, and urges its use. His description 
is as follows : The combined stable rake and scraper is shown in fig. 120. 

The head b is made of hard wood, 14 inches in 
length, 4 inches wide, and i J inches thick, at one 
s jd e tapering to J inch in thickness. Six or 
seven f inch holes 2 inches in depth, are made 
Fi S- I2 °* upon the wide side, in which are inserted sharp¬ 

ened hardwood pins, a , projecting 3} inches. The handle <?, is 4J feet in 
length, and braced as shown, with the upper or sharpened pin edge the 
best and unsoiled bedding can be hauled up in the stall, or it may be^sed 

7 



brand’s cyclopedia. 


114 

for pushing out the refuse straw and manure that is quite difficult to handle 
with the smooth edge of the tool, which it is necessary to use for scraping 
out the finer parts. This tool enables the farmer to do the same work in 
considerably less time than without it. 

Tying material for farmers. —There are two materials used for the 
various purposes of binding and tying, which every farmer should be sup¬ 
plied with- One of these used for gardening purposes, tying up trees and 
plants, ligature for bedding, etc., is the prepared basswood bark. This is 
very easily manufactured, and may be procured in abundance wherever 
basswood is used for timber or saw-logs. Remove the bark when 
it will peel freely, and place it under water immediately before it dries 
any whatever. A moderately running stream is best, as it carries off 
the foul odor otherwise arising. It is best to place it in masses or beds, 
and sink it by means of stones. In ten days or so the inner or smooth 
bark will peel off handsomely in stout ribbons, and should be hung up to 
dry. The remaining bark may be sunk again, and in a fortnight will afford 
another and coarser peeling. 

The other material, valuable for binding cornstalks, corn shocks, threshed 
straw, and other purposes where strength is needed, is the ozier, such as 
nurserymen employ for packing trees—the best sort for this purpose being 
sal purpurea. The same quantity will grow on a square rod or acre for 
binding purposes as may be obtained from a rod or acre of rye straw. It 
should be cut down every spring to the ground, and the young shoots 
which numerously spring up constituted the tying material. 

WAGONS AND CARRIAGES—To make last long. —Keep them 
clean and well screwed up. A carriage allowed to become dirty, loses its 
paint, cracks, admits water and decays. If’dirt is permitted to collect on 
the hubs, it works inside, mixes with the grease, and grinds out the works. 
The wheels soon work loose and the evil increases. If the nuts work loose, 
the parts rattle, wear out, or break. Place a wrench on every nut, if the 
wagon or carriage is in use, as often as once a week. Keep all parts well 
washed, well painted, and well varnished. Always place them under shelter 
when not in actual service. 

WALKS— Garden.— There is no part of gardens or pleasure grounds 
more expressive of the character of the keeping than the walks. No mat¬ 
ter how fine the flower beds may be, if the walks are not bounded by 
smooth and graceful curves, or if they are rough, irregular and unfinished, 
the grounds will convey unmistakably an expression of bad management. 
But a smooth and perfect walk, on the other hand, even if carried through a 
wild natural shrubbery, imparts a finished air to the whole. These facts 
should be borne in mind by all owners of ornamental gardens. 


THE FARM. 


115 

WATER BARREL—A portable. —On almost every farm there is usu¬ 
ally a large quantity of water to be transported from 
place to place, which may be greatly facilitated by 
simply hanging a water barrel between two light wheels, 
as represented in the illustration herewith given, fig. 

Fig. 121. 121. A pair of the forward wheels of a light carriage 

Portable W ater Barrel. WO uld be just what is need. A strong cider, beer or 

oil barrel may be used, by cutting two square holes through the staves, to 
receive the axletree, which should fit closely to the orifices, and be secured 
with nails, having the very small cracks stopped with pitch, or beeswax and 
tallow. In many cases a farmer could carry one or two barrels of drinking 
water a short distance, to a few animals, much ' sooner than they could be 
driven to the watering place. As the piggery should always stand at a good 
distance from the dwelling-house, a swill barrel on wheels would always be 
found eminently convenient for carrying all kinds of swill, whether in a solid 
or liquid state, to the swine’s trough. Such a barrel may be appropriated 
to numerous purposes which I will not mention. A lid is made to fit the 
top closely, and two hooks hold it down, so that but little of the contents of 
the barrel can escape even were it turned on the side. When water or swill 
is to be poured into other barrels or tubs, fix a temporary inclined plane 
with two planks for the block wheels and elevate the hands, so that the barrel 
may be turned top end down if desirable. Such a “ go-cart ” is often far 
more convenient for transporting sand a short distance, or some other mate¬ 
rial, than an ordinary wheelbarrow. A pair of wheels four feet in diameter 
are preferable to those only thre feet in diameter, especially when the way 
is not a smooth surface. 

WHEAT—To prevent from sprouting. —To give a remedy after the 
damage is done, may remind our readers of the old proverb, “ after the 
steed is stolen, shut the stable door.” But as a shrewd old friend sometimes 
remarks, “ the best way is as good as any,”—a practice 
which will insure the grain crop from injury in wet sea¬ 
son, and be wholly unobjectionable at other times, is 
worthy of adoption. 

We have taken some pains to ascertain by experiment 
the precise time of cutting when the wheat crop affords 
ng 1**. the largest yield ; and this we find to be when chaff has 
become about one-half or two-thirds yellow, green streaks running through 
it—a few days earlier is better than too late. We have recommended this 
practice to our readers, and also to our neighbors, and many have adopted 
it. A good farmer and careful observer informs us that he cut a part of 
his wheat this year while in this condition, and put it up in capped shocks, 






n6 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


well known to many farmers, and represented in the annexed figure. It 
remained during the long period of heavy rains which followed, dried 
thoroughly during this time, and came out as bright and as fresh as in any 
year; while all the rest, cut at the usual time, was badly sprouted. The 
contrast was remarkable. 

We saw large fields the present year that were quite ripe enough to cut, 
before the rains commenced, and regretted, at the time the risk from delay 
that the owners were incurring, but did not dream of so disastrous a result. 

Now if the practice of cutting early and shocking securely, is as good 
in any season, and better in wet ones, why not adopt it generally ? Let 
our readers make a memorandum of this matter in their minds, for another 
year. 

WHEAT SEED —Cleaning. —Washing the seed in brine as strong as 
it can be made, will prevent smut; it will also enable the farmer to skim 
out light wheat, chess, and almost anything else that may be in the seed, 
the strong brine bringing it to the surface much better than mere water. 
The wheat should, while in the brine, be stirred as long as any foul seed 
or light wheat rises; one bushel at once in a barrel is sufficient, with plenty 
of brine ; then dip brine and wheat into a basket. When drained a few 
minutes, empty on a clean floor; take the same brine for another batch> 
and so on, until you have as much as you wish to sow that day; then sift on 
good slacked lime gradually, while another person follows around the heap 
and stirs it with a shovel; put on lime until the wheat will not stick 
together; then let it be sown and immediately covered; the lime will then 
continue to stick to the wheat, and be a good manure. 

WHEAT —Smutty.— Smutty seed produces a smutty crop. The seed 
of the smut fungus, when examined by the most powerful microscopes, are 
found to be much smaller than the vessels or sap pores of the plant, and 
are doubtless carried through them. The experiment has been made by 
sowing good grains from a smutty crop, and which were no doubt well 
dusted with the fungus seeds. A portion was planted without any prepara¬ 
tion, and the crop had many smutty heads in it. Another equal portion of 
seed was repeatedly washed in water, and the number of smutty heads was 
many times less. A third portion was washed in brine, with a still more 
favorable result. The best way is to wash first in water, then in brine, and 
then roll the seed in slacked or powdered lime. This process, if care is 
taken to prevent the seed from becoming tainted from foul bags or other 
sources, will nearly extirpate it. 

WHEAT —Planting deep and shallow.— A successful farmer says 
that he has for many years examined many different fields; that in many 
instances he has found plants with a single stem, and in other instances 


THE FARM. 


ii 7 

large stools throwing up several stalks. On examination he has found that 
the single stems always proceeded from deeply buried seed, and the large 
stools from seeds slightly covered. This shows the importance of gradu¬ 
ating the depth of seed drills so as not to deposit the seed at much depth. 

DRYING WOOD.—Every one who uses a wood stove has discovered 
that there is a great difference between the value of wood that is well or 
poorly dried. Most kinds of wood cut in winter, and left in large logs in 
the woods, become more or less soured and injured. If wood could be 
cut and split in summer, when the weather would dry it rapidly, the wood 
would be greatly increased in value, but as this is usually impracticable, the 
next best is to cut and split it in winter as fine as will be required, and then 
cord it up in a wood-house, well sheltered from rains, but admitting the free 
circulation of the air. 

WOOD —Quality of different kinds of. —The celebrated experiments 
of Marcus Bull, of Philadelphia, many years ago, gave the following results, 
showing the amount required to throw out a given quantity of heat: 

Hickory,. 4 cords. White Oak,.4 3-4 cords. 

Hard Maple,. 6 2-3 cords. Soft Maple,.71-5 cords. 

Pitch Pine,. 9 1-7 cords. White Pine,.9 1-5 cords. 

Anthracite Coal,. 4 tons. 

What young people should know.— The best inheritance that parents 
can leave their children , is the ability to help and take care of themselves . 
This is better than a hundred thousand dollars apiece. In any trouble or 
difficulty, they will have two excellent servants ready, in the shape of their 
two hands. Those who can do nothing, and have to be waited on, are help¬ 
less, and easily disheartened at the misfortunes of life. Those who are active 
and handy, meet troubles with a cheerful face, and soon surmount them. 
Let young people, therefore, learn to do as many different useful things as 
possible. 

Every farmer’s boy should know how, sooner or later, 

1. To dress himself, black his own shoes, cut his brother’s hair, wind a 
watch, sew on a button, make a bed, and keep all his cloihes in perfect 
order, and neatly in place. 

2. To harness a horse, grease a wagon and drive a team. 

3. To carve, and wait on table. 

4. To milk the cows, shear the sheep, and dress a veal or mutton. 

5. To reckon money and keep accounts accurately, and according to good 
book-keeping rules. 

6. To write a neat, appropriate, briefly expressed business letter, in a good 
hand, and fold and superscribe it properly; and write contracts. 

7. To plow, sow grain and grass seed, drive a mowing machine, swing a 
scythe, build a neat stack, and pitch hay. 









118 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


8. To put up a package, build a fire, whitewash a wall, mend broken 
tools, and regulate a clock. 

There are many other things which would render boys more useful to 
themselves and others—these are merely a specimen. But the young man 
who can do all these things well, and who is ready at all times to assist oth¬ 
ers, and be useful to his mother and sisters, will command far more respect 
and esteem, than if he knew merely how to drive fast horses, smoke cigars, 
play cards, and talk nonsense to foolish young ladies at parties. 

Every girl should know how, 

1. To sew and knit. 

2. To mend clothes neatly. 

3. To make beds. 

4. To dress her own hair. 

5. To wash dishes and sweep carpets. 

6. To trim lamps. 

7. To make good bread, and perform all plain cooking. 

8. To keep her room, closets and drawers, neatly in order. 

9. To a w r ork sewing machine. 

10. To make good butter and cheese. 

11. To make a dress, and children’s clothes. 

12. To keep accounts, and calculate interest. 

13. To write, fold, and superscribe letters properly. 

14. To nurse the sick efficiently, and not faint at the sight of blood. 

15. To be ready to render efficient aid and comfort to those in trouble, 
in an unostentatious way. 

16. To receive and entertain visitors when her mother is sick or absent. 

A young lady who can do all these things well, and who is always ready 
to render aid to the afflicted, and to mitigate the perplexities of those about 
her, will bring more comfort to others and happiness to herself, and be 
more esteemed, than if she only knew how to dance, simper, sing, and play 
on the piano. 


Mechanical. 


BAGS— Marking. —This is easily done by applying black paint with a 
brush through holes cut as letters, through a piece of pasteboard. But 
the pasteboard, unless inconveniently thick, curls at the corners after a time, 
and the letters are defaced. Tin plate is much better, but it is difficult to 
cut the letters in it. Thick sheet-lead is, however, just the thing, and any 
person who can use a knife may cut the letters through it after they have 
been accurately marked. 

BARNS— Wash for. —The Horticulturist gives the following as the best 
for this purpose. Hydraulic cement, one peck; freshly slacked lime, one 
peck; yellow ochre (in powder,) four pounds; burnt umber, four pounds; 
the whole to be “ dissolved ” in hot water, and applied with a brush. 

BARNYARDS— Paving. —Hiram Mills, of Lewis county, N. Y., thinks 
he has made a great improvement by paving his entire barnyard with cob¬ 
ble stones, adding greatly to the comfort of the stock, and facilitating the 
drawing of manure ; and also enabling him to clean out all the manure, and 
keep a neat yard. 

BARN DOORS— Fastening open. —Good bams are always supplied 
with fastenings to hold the doors while shut, but very few owners ever think 
of securing them while open, and as a consequence, strong winds often 
blow them about, slamming them against the walls or other obstructions, 
injuring or spiffing them, and sometimes breaking them down from their 
hinges. Different modes are adopted for securing them while open. Doors 
which are merely fastened by a hook and staple at the place where the edge 
of the door strikes, to receive the hook and hold it fast. Another mode is 
to prop the door open by means of a stick provided 
| I I ! I I I for the purpose, an inch or more in diameter and 
r ~tiJ L i ' ' three or four feet long (fig. 123,) which is fastened 
to the outer edge of the door by an eye and staple, 
the other end resting horizontally in a hook when not 
in use. This end has a sharp iron point, to prevent 
it from slipping on the ground or ice. When the door 

Fig. .23-Propping open is °P ened the stick is P laced in the P° siti0n 0f a P r °P 
~ by a single movement of the hand; and when again 

119 



Barn Door. 










120 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


shut, it is lifted and laid in the hook. A third mode, which may be adopted 
where a common latch is used on the door, is to place a second catch at 
the outer edge of the door, which may receive and hold the latch while 
the door is open. This is better or easier to manage than either of the 
others, the latch being self-fastening in both positions. 

Beetle handles. —A correspondent of the Rural New- Yorker says the 
best way to insert the handle of a maul or beetle, so that it will never come 
out nor turn, is first to bore an auger-hole through the head an inch and a 
half in diameter, and then cut the hole square with a chisel, making it an 
inch and three-fourths long on the lower side. Then make the handle to 
fit this enlarged part at the end, working the rest of it down to an inch and 
a half in diameter, and bringing the handle up through from below. 

BEES’ WAX—To prepare. —To obtain wax, boil the combs in a strong 
muslin bag, in a sauce-pan, with water enough to keep it from burning; 
and whilst boiling, continue to press the bag with a wooden slice or 
spoon, to extract the whole, as you skim off the wax. Drop the wax into 
cold water, where it will swim on the surface. The wax thus obtained will 
still want refining, to effect which place it in a clean sauce-pan, and melt it 
over a slow fire. Then pour off the clean wax into proper vessels, and let 
it cool. To whiten it, make it in thin cakes, and expose it to the sun. 

COAL —Bin for. —House cellars, which have smooth floors of hydraulic 
cement, as all such cellars should have, are often disfigured by the loose coal 
which is thrown in aheap upon them, and often scattered 
about loosely, in a general way. Neat housekeepers use 
large boxes or bins for the coal (fig. 124,) which is shov- 
1 eled out with considerable inconvenience, at the top. A 
I better way is to place the coal in a large box or bin, hav- 
jng an opening at the bottom, ten inches or a foot wide 
Fig 124. Coal Bin. anc t severa i inches high, varying with the size of the coaL 
which at this place rests upon the floor. It is thus easily shoveled up into 
the scuttle, or into the hot-air furnace in the same apartment. As fast as 
the coal is thus removed a fresh supply falls down from above until the bin 
is exhausted. 

BIRD HOUSES— Cheap.— One of my neighbors uses tin cans which 
have been emptied of fruit, for houses for the birds. The smaller insectivorous 
birds can easily build in them. He fastens them by a band of tin, which 
is placed around the can, and nailed through the ends. Better do this than 
allow the cans to litter up the yards ; besides it pays to protect the birds. 

BLADDERS—To prepare.— Let them soak twenty-four hours in water, 
to which a little chloride of lime or potash has been added, then remove 
the extraneous membranes, wash well in clean water, and let dry. 



MECHANICAL. 


121 


BOTTLES—To take loose corks from.— Bend a small wire in the form 
of the letter U, large enough to pass around the cork; then put the loop end 
of the wire into the bottle or jug, and turn it upside down, so that the cork 
will fall to the mouth of the jug, with the wire on each side of it and over 
the rear end, and it can be drawn out at once. The wire will be pressed 
into the sides of the cork as it is withdrawn. A small, strong cord will 
sometimes subserve the place of a wire. 

When a bottle is full of any kind of fluid, so that the cork rises to the 
mouth, put in the wire and draw it up, and make it enter the hole straight, 
when it may be withdrawn. 

BOARD FENCES— Facing. —A valid objection is made to the practice 
of nailing upright facing strips of board against the posts, after the hori¬ 
zontal boards are on—that they retain water, and cause the ends of the 
boards to rot before the rest. A better way is to omit the facing for many 
years, or until decay begins on the inner side of the boards next the posts, 
in consequence of the water retained on that side. After the boards have 
become loose, and have been repeatedly nailed on again, then is the time 
to apply the facing. Any strips of board about four feet long, and four or 
five inches wide, will answer. We have known fences that had stood about 
twenty years unfaced, and then begin to give out, made strong and firm for 
several years more by facing. 

BRICK OVENS—How to build. —A brick oven made in the old style, 
out of doors, entirely separated from the dwelling house, is more desirable 
and safer, so far as danger from fire is concerned, than if built by the side 
of the fireplace in the house. A good brick oven for baking bread, pies 
and cakes is worth all the ranges and cook-stoves that one could store in 
his kitchen. In such an oven everything will be baked just right, above 
and below, through and through. After a foundation has been prepared, 
place two courses of hard bricks for the bottom of the oven. Then build 
the mouth and part of the sides until it is desirable to begin to draw the 
sides inward, when sand or loose earth can be placed on the foundation, 
and the surface smoothed off and pressed down to the desired form of the 
oven. Then let the brick work be built over this form of sand ; lay two 
courses of hard bricks over the form, with the best mortar. After the last 
bricks have been laid the sand can be removed. The bricks should be 
soaked for several hours previous to being laid, so they will not absorb the 
moisture of the mortar until it has set. Such an oven will cost but a small 
sum. Many people can collect a sufficient number of loose bricks and 
pieces around their dwellings to build a brick oven, and any intelligent man, 
though only half a mechanic, can build such an oven about as well as a 


mason. 


122 


brand’s CYCLOPEDIA. 


CART —Hand. —This is a very useful implement on every farm, and 

may be used for a thousand pur¬ 
poses. It holds a position between the 
common cart or wagon, and a wheel¬ 
barrow. It may be used in many 
places, such as gardens, door-yards, 
etc., for conveying manure or draw¬ 
ing off rubbish, or stones, where the 
larger vehicle would be inconven¬ 
ient or do injury, and it is more easily drawn over soft surfaces, and will 
carry larger loads than the common wheelbarrow. In many cases its ready 
use will save harnessing to a wagon. 

CATTLE STABLES— Dimensions of. —Levi Bartlett gives the follow¬ 
ing measurements for the different parts of his cattle stables, fitted with 
stanchions, as the result of mature experience: The stables are 12 feet wide; 
the platform or floor on which the cattle stand, 5 feet long for oxen, 4 J feet 
for cows. The sills and top-joists for holding the stanchions, are each 2 by 
6 inches. Two below and two above are placed side by side, and the 
stanchions in the space between them, every alternate one being loose at 
the top, so as to open and close again on the animal’s neck. The manure 
gutter is 1 foot wide, immediately behind the platforms; the walk in the 
rear of this, 3 J feet wide. Distance between the slats of the stanchions, 8 
to ten inches for oxen, 6 to 8 for cows. For smaller cattle, a strip of board 
is nailed on the fixed stanchion, so as to reduce the space. One inch by 
four is a proper size for the slats, if of oak; or lj inches thick, if pine. 

CARRIAGES— Oiling. —The oil used for this purpose should have body 
enough to last some time, and for this reason castor-oil is one of the best. 
In applying it run the oil can lengthwise with the axle, on the top, and put a 
little in the oil chamber in the box. If the axle is always wiped clean before 
applying the fresh oil, it will remove grit and make it last longer. A person 
who has used lard a great deal for iron axles thinks that, although it runs 
olf rather slowly in warm weather, it is not so lubricating as castor-oil. 

CELLAR DRAINS.—To secure sufficient drainage, and to prevent the 
channels from becoming choked by sediment, much depends on the form 
of the bottom of the channel. We had recently occasion to take up and 
repair a cellar drain which had become obstructed, and had ceased to dis¬ 
charge water; and found the difficulty to result chiefly from a flat bottom, 
formed by placing horse-shoe tile in the usual manner on a plank bottom, 
as shown in fig. 126. The water which had passed into 
if \| the drain, spread itself over the whole bottom; the cur- 

Fig. iS^Ho'Se-shoe rent wa9 shallow and weak, and was incapable of carry- 
tile wrongly placed. i n g off the small particles of solid matter which it con- 



Fig. 125. Hand Cart. 












MECHANICAL. 


123 




tained, and they were deposited, as a necessary consequence, in the bottom. 
Successive layers finally choked the whole channel. Channels for a similar pur¬ 
pose, either above or below ground, are frequently made of boards or plank 
alone, with a flat bottom, and with a similar result. Had the corner instead 
of the flat side, been placed downwards, the water would have been thrown 
together or concentrated, and instead of depositing sediment, would have 
swept it off freely, and left the channel clear. The accompanying figures show 
this result distinctly; the first (fig. 127) repre¬ 
senting the water as spread over the flat bottom, 
and the second (fig. 128) the same amount of 
Fig. 127. Fig. 128. wa ter collected together in the angle formed by 
placing the boards in a different position. In constructing a drain for similar 
purposes of tile , the curved portion should always be placed below. If horse¬ 
shoe tile is used, it should be inverted (fig. 129,) and covered with a stout 
sole, flat stone or plank. If tubular or pipe tile (fig # 
130) is employed, no dfficulty will occur—although the 

r esults will be less striking than in an angle—and a 
Fig. 129. In- Fig. 130. , 

verted horse- Tubular small tile will be better than one too large. 

shoe. tile. These precautions are not required in common land 
drainage, as the water, before entering, becomes thoroughly filtered, pro¬ 
vided the drains are deep enough. They should be entirely beyond the 
reach of frost, which by disturbing the soil, always produces some muddy 
water. In loose or porous soils, the depth should be greater than in those 
of a compact or clayey nature. In this latitude the depth should never be 
less than three feet for the former, nor less than two and a half for the latter. 

CELLARS— Ventilating. —Every one is aware, on a moment’s reflec¬ 
tion, of the importance of ventilating cellars—as foul air is not only detri¬ 
mental to health, but is detrimental, or taints everything within its reach. 
During the warm part of the year, partial ventilation may be effected by 
opening opposite windows, but too much fresh air may 
render the cellar warm. One of the best contrivances* 
especially for winter, is to affix a branch pipe to the 
stove-pipe in the room above, for this purpose, as shown 
in the annexed figure. The pipe passing up to some 
height above the stove before joining, does not materi¬ 
ally affect the draft; and all difficulty of this kind will be prevented by plac¬ 
ing a valve at the floor, to be shut while the fire is kindled, or to be partly 
closed if too much air passes from the cellar, causing a cold draught from 
the exterior crevices. As foul air generally rises to the upper part of the 
cellar, it is drawn off in this,way as fast as it accumulates, and the apart¬ 
ment kept pure. 











124 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


CHAIN PUMP—To mend without taking it off. —When the chain 
breaks, uncover the well and hook up one end of the chain. Tie a long 
cord to this end, and the other end of the cord to a large cork. Drop the 
chain with its cork down the pump tube, when as soon as the cork passes 
the lower end, it will pop up to the surface of the water in the well. Draw 
it up and with the cord the chain, when the chain is readily united, and the 
circuit made again. 

CHIMNEYS— Cement around. —A correspondent of an Agricultural 
paper makes the roof perfectly tight around his chimneys, by making tar 
and dry road dust (sifted) into a thick paste, and applying with a trowel, 
extending four inches over the shingles. This forms a perfect collar till 
the roof requires renewal. 

CHIMNEYS ON FIRE—To extinguish. —“ First shut the doors and 
windows of the room containing the fire; stop up the flue of the chimney 
with a piece of wet carpet or blanket; and then throw a little water or 
common salt on the fire. By this means the draught of the chimney will 
be checked, and the burning soot will soon be extinguished for want of air. 
Let this be remembered by the reader.” 

CHIMNEYS—To stop leakage around.— Remove the shingles and 
fit them again close to the sides of the chimney; then mingle a lot of coal- 
tar and sand together, making a stiff paste; spread it neatly around the 
chimney on the roof and press it down hard, and the water will be effectu¬ 
ally excluded. 

This plastic material will adhere to both the brick and the shingles ; and 
neither frost, rains, nor dry weather will cause it to peel off. 

CISTERNS—To make.— A very common and cheap form for the cistern 
is to dig a round hole into the ground with sloping sides, somewhat in the 
form of a pail, and then to plaster immediately on the 
earth, fig. 132. The reason for making the sides slop¬ 
ing is so the mortar will keep its place while soft, as it 
is impossible to find a soil dry and hard enough to 
retain the plastering by simple adhesion. In conse¬ 
quence of this the top of this kind of cistern must be 
wide, and therefore it is a difficult matter to cover very 
large ones effectually and substantially. Most commonly the covering is 
made of stiff and durable plank, supported if necessary by strong scantling, 
and over this is placed about twelve inches of earth to completely exclude 
the frost. A hole with a curb about eighteen to twenty inches, or even two 
feet, must be left in the covering for the admission of the water-pipe or 
pump, and to allow a man to enter, if necessary, to clean out the cistern. In 
cold or freezing weather, it is of the utmost necessity to have this hole well 







MECHANICAL. 125 

protected from frost, which would otherwise enter the wet cement or walls, 
and cracking and breakage be the result. 

Another form for a cistern, and we think a superior one, being more 
capacious, and more durable, is to dig the hole with perpendicular sides in 
the form of a barrel, and build the walls with stone or 
brick to receive the plastering, fig. 133. In consequence 
of the circular form, operating like an arch, these walls 
will not be in danger of falling, if not more than half 
the ordinary thickness of similar walls. For large cis¬ 
terns they should be thicker than for small ones. The 
walls should be built perpendicular until about half 
way up, when each successive layer should be con¬ 
tracted so as to bring them nearer together, in the form of an arch, reduc¬ 
ing the size of the opening at the top, and rendering a smaller covering 
necessary. If the subsoil is always dry or never soaked or flooded with 
water, the walls may be laid in common lime mortar, and afterwards plas¬ 
tered on the inner surface with the cement. But in wet subsoils, the 
whole wall should be laid in water-lime. If the bottom is hard earth or 
compact gravel, a coating of an inch or two may be spread immediately 
upon the earth’s bottom; but in other instances the bottom should be first 
laid with a flat stone, or paved with round ones, the cement spread upon 
these. 

CISTERNS— Contents of.— The following gives the contents of cir¬ 
cular cisterns, for each foot in depth: 


5 feet diameter 






BARRELS. 

. 4.66 

6 feet diameter 






6.71 

7 feet diameter 






913 

8 feet diameter 






U -93 

9 feet diameter 






15.10 

18.65 

10 feet diameter 







CISTERN PUMPS FREEZING—To prevent. —Cistern pumps often 
are made to bring up the water through a curved or inclined lead pipe, so 
as to conduct it to any desired place in the kitchen. They usually have a 
valve to open by a stroke of the pump-handle, and let all the water down 
again, so as not to freeze. But careless hired girls frequently omit this, and 
the lead pipe is filled with ice, which often splits the lead and spoils the 
pump. A safer way, therefore, is to place a splinter of wood under the 
lower valve, to let the water leak out in about five minutes, and drain the 
pump. This is to remain only during winter. The best pumps are now 
made so as to screw offt he base in a few seconds, laying the lower valve to 
view. If pump tubes become actually filled with ice, they may be quickly 
thawed by pouring hot water directly on the ice, through a small lead or 












126 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


other tube, which must settle as fast as the ice thaws. Ice may be thus 
thawed a foot per minute—but without this tube it could not be thawed in a 
whole day, for the hot water being lightest, remains at the top. 

CISTERN— Filtering, cheap.—A correspondent furnishes in sub¬ 
stance the following plan fora filtering cistern, recommended by its cheap¬ 
ness and simplicity, and which any mason can make without trouble, and at a 
cost of a dollar or two additional to any common cistern. 
The only drawback is a slight taste of brick for a few 
weeks at first. It consists simply of a brick partition, built 
across, through which the water percolates slowly, but 
quite as fast as it will be wanted for ordinary use. As 
there will be a great pressure of water against this wall it 
must be firmly set in the cistern walls with cement, and 
all built up together; and it must be convex with the 



Fig. 134.—Filtering 
Cistern. 


pump, and toward the entrance spout—say a curve of six inches in five . 
feet, or one foot in ten. Without this precaution the walls will burst by the 
pressure of the water when it pours in rapidly in a hard rain. 

COAL— Shovel for.— A good shovel for filling coal scuttles or furnaces 
(fig. 135 ) is made by taking a common iron or steel 
scoop shovel to a blacksmith, who will bend up the 
Fig. 135. —Coal Shovel, sides at right angles to the bottom, of such a width 
as will be suitable for filling the scuttle or passing the furnace door. 

CLOCK—To clean a.— When the clock stops, don’t take it to the repair 
shop till you have tried it as follows: Take off the pointers and the face; 
take off the pendulum and its wire. Remove the rachet from the tick wheel, 
and the clock will run down with great velocity. Let it go. The increased 
speed wears away the gum and dust from the pinions—the clock cleans 
itself. If you have any pure sperm oil, put the least bit on the axles. Put 
the machine together, and nine times in ten it will run just as well as if it 
had been taken to the shop. In fact this is the way that most shopmen 
clean clocks. If, instead of a pendulum, the clock has a watch escapement, 
this latter can be taken out in an instant without taking the works apart, and 
the result is the same. It takes about twenty minutes to so clean a brass 
clock and saves a dollar. 

CLOCKS— Leveling. —Clocks often run badly by not being set level— 
ticking unequally and stopping easily. They may be wedged up so as to 
be perfectly level, and an accurate ear will know by the ticking when this 
is effected. But a more perfect way is to tack a card or paper behind the 
pendulum in the evening, and place a bright lamp at a distance exactly in 
front. Then mark with a pencil the shadow of the rod,, move it very slowly 
to one side until it ticks, and then make another mark. Move it to the other 






MECHANICAL. 


127 


side, and mark it when it ticks again. Measuring the distance of these 
three marks will enable the operator to level the clock to a hair’s breadth. 

CORK —Withdrawing a.— Not unfrequently corks are driven entirely 
within the bottle, from which they are sometimes withdrawn by 
m throwing the loop of a cord or thread around them. This, how- 
^ ever, requires a good deal of dexterity, as well as patience, and is 
)\ not always successful. A much easier, and at the same time, a far 
better way, is to take a piece of annealed wire, which should be 
very thin—the smaller the better—make a loop just wide enough 
to hold the cork, and thrust this into the bottle, and over the cork, 
Fig. 136 which is then easily drawn out. The spring of the wire will be 
sufficient to allow it to enter the mouth, and yet take in the cork. 

CORN-HOUSE— Plan of. —I give you a rough sketch of a com house 
we built three years ago, and there has not been a rat or mouse in it yet. 

You will see it is not connected at the bottom—conse¬ 
quently use the gravel for a floor to drive in on—the only 
way a crib can be built rat and mouse proof. It stands 
on eight pillars, four on each side. They are eight inches in 
diameter, two feet ten inches long, sixteen inches of upper 
end is tinned—standing on stone blocks two feet square 
by six inches thick. On top of each post are saddles. It 
stands as firm as if it were on a wall. The ends are 
boarded up and down, with small rib slats over each crack. The sides are 
covered with slats two and a half inches wide, with three-quarter inch cracks. 
They are put on up and down from the projection to the under corner of 
the sill. Inside slats run the other way, horizontally. 
There is a door in the center of each crib, made 
of slats, to put com in, to the depth of five feet. 
Then it is handed up from the wagon through the 
Fig. 138. scuttle in the centre of the upper floor, which is 

laid with slats except one end nine feet square, which is a tile floor for a 
bin to hold shelled corn. The crib extends up to the roof, with three doors 
to empty the com (three on each side.) Stairs hung with a hinge so as to 
swing up and fasten; when down the lower end rests on the walk. We 
cribbed, two years ago, eighteen hundred bushels of ears in this corn-house. 

CRACKS OF DOORS— Muffling in winter. —Dress out some wooden 
rods, about half an inch or more square, and cover them with strips of woollen 
cloth. Strips of list wound around these sticks will subserve a good pur¬ 
pose ; now close the door, not on the casing, as it is usually done, close in 
the corners, on the sides and at the bottom and top. A door can be made 
air-tight or wind-proof more perfectly by nailing the strips on the door than 



Fig. 137. Corn- 
House. 
























128 


brand’s cyclopedia 


to nail them on the casing, as it is usually done. When muffles are put on 
a door in this it way will shut easily but very close and tight. It would 
be a good improvement to fasten them on with small screws, as they could 
be more readily taken off in warm weather. 

Cracks in stoves are easily and effectually stopped by a paste made of 
ashes and salt with water. A harder and more durable cement for the 
same purpose is made by mixing iron filings, sal ammonia, and water. 

PLANTS— Crystallize flowers, etc. —Dissolve eighteen ounces of 
pure alum in a quart of distilled water by the aid of a boiling heat. 
When the solution is nearly cold, suspend in it, by a thread of silk or fine 
twine, the object to be crystallized for about twenty-four hours; they are 
then to be taken out and suspended in a dry, shady room till thoroughly 
dry. The proper temperature for the solution in which the object is to be 
immersed is about 95 degrees Fahrenheit. When the solution is too cold 
the crystals formed will be too large • and when too hot they will be too 
small. If different colors are desired, they may be given by boiling in the 
alum solution a little indigo, logwood, French berries, or a soluble vegeta¬ 
ble or minerable dye whose chemical nature does not decompose, or is not 
decomposed by the alum. Among the subjects adapted to this purpose 
may be mentioned the moss-rose, ears of wheat, barley, oats, and other 
cereals, the grasses, and almost any variety of flowers; various insects, 
such as are interesting in the study of etymology ; and above all the almost 
endless variety of sea weeds and mosses, which form one of the most 
beautiful features in the study of botany. For parlor ornaments, especially 
in the country, these preparations are vastly superior to and more attract¬ 
ive than the more costly works of art. 

DIRT SCRAPER.—This implement is best and most durably made of 

cast iron—the handles being of wood. 
Although well known in many dis¬ 
tricts, it is worthy of a brief recom¬ 
mendation to all, and is a convenient 
labor-saving implement in leveling 
knolls, filling hollows, smoothing piles 
of earth around new buildings, forming 

_ embankments of hard earth for farm 

Fig. 139. Cast Irop Road Scraper. roadSj scraping out broad open d ; tches 



for streams, etc. 

DOOR— Fastening.— Travelers who stop at third-rate hotels, often find 
their lodging-rooms destitute of bolts. The following simple fastening may 
be carried in their traveling-bags, and will secure them from intrusion dur¬ 
ing the night. Take a piece of large wire about four or five inches long, 


MECHANICAL. 


I29 


bend it in a loop like the letter U, but narrower, then heating the points 
red-hot, bend them at right angles, and flatten the points like sharp 
T I wedges—the whole being similar to the form represented in fig. 140. 
| 1 In fastening the door, place the sharpened points of this loop against 
8J| the door post or frame, and then by slamming the door slightly against 
Fig it, the points will be driven in and hold it fast. It should be so placed 
140. that the loop may project about half an inch into the room; then take 
a short piece of iron and thrust it through the loop. The iron will extend 
across both door-frame and door, and prevent the latter from being 
opened, while it remains in the loop. There is usually space enough 
between any door and the door post for the wire loop. A small bar of 
strong wood will answer as well as iron, if the loop is large enough. In 
place of iron a piece of thick sheet iron, or still better, a than plate of 
steel, may be bent as shown in fig 140, with a hole through the end for 
receiving the bolt, which may be a large nail, if nothing else is at hand. 

Door latches will work easily and with little noise, by touching them 
lightly once a week with a little oil or tallow. 

DOOR LATCHES.—Nothing wears out the door of a house faster than 
slamming or rattling against latches that do not catch. They should be at 
once repaired, and latches and bolts which do not slide easily may be made 
to do so if touched with a drop of oil. It is well to pass around once a 
week with an oiled feather, and touch every latch and bolt in the house. 

DOORS— Sagging. —When a new house is built, the doors commonly 
work well for a time, but as time elapses one of them begins to strike the sill 
at the outer comer; another “ gets stuck ” against the lintel; a third strikes 
the side piece, and a fourth cannot be shut at all. The various slammings, 
pullings^ jerkings, and vain or difficult efforts to open or shut the door, twist, 
crack or injure it, deranging the knob or lock, and rattling down the adjacent 
plastering. The carpenter is called in, and by sawing or planing off the 
painted edge, succeeds in effecting a remedy for the present time. In nearly 
all such instances, either the building has settled out of shape, or the hinges 
have become worn or loosened. When the latter is the case, sometimes a 
slight replacement or even screwing up of the hinge will answer the pur¬ 
pose. If the iron on which the hinge hangs has been worn small, a remedy 
may be applied in the form of a small washer, which may be a tube of tin 
or thin sheet-iron slipped over it. If the building has settled (and a very 
slight settling will derange all the doors,) the use of a jack-screw with thin 
hard-wood wedges may be made to remove all the difficulty. 

When a door sticks against the base or lintel, the difficulty of opening 
and shutting may be removed temporarily, by pressing firmly on the door 
knob in the direction from the adhering part. For instance, if the door 

8 


IjO 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



Fig. 141. 
Board Drains. 


sticks at the top, press downwards—if at the bottom, lift upwards—and it 
may be readily opened or as readily shut. 

DRAINS— Board. —The following mode of constructing board drains 
instead of tile, when the latter cannot be had, is given: It will be observed 
that a great advantage is derived from laying the tube 
corner down , as there is a stronger current of water car¬ 
rying off sediment which would gradually settle in a flat 
bottom drain, and ultimately choke it. 

DRAIN— For a rod of two-inch.— Two boards 4 
inches by 1 inch, 16 J feet long, nailed together with just 
nails enough to keep the board in place. Now by plac¬ 
ing the ends of the boards three inches from each other, 
a very nice joint is made. In laying the drains, they can either be laid flat, 
or, what is better, on one of the comers, forming a diamond shaped drain. 
If there are not too many nails put in the boards, there will be plenty of 
room for the water to find its way into the drain. 

FENCE— Rail, to build.— Begin at the bottom of all hills or ascents, 
and build up—this will make the fence stand much better against the winds 
and all disturbing causes. 

FIRE—How to act in case of. —Better than all elaborate and costly 
apparatus for extinguishing fires are constant care and watchfulness, and 
quick and intelligent action on the part of those who first discover a fire in 
progress. The fire, which at its first beginning, could be smothered with a 
pocket-handkerchief, or dashed out with a bucket of water, neglected a few 
hours lays in waste millions of dollars’ worth of property. If there is any 
time in which a person should be cool and calm, in perfect command of 
himself, it is when he discovers a fire that threatens the destruction of life 
and property. The first thing to do is to leam precisely where it is-; the 
second to consider the chances of extinguishing it. Of course, in cities an 
alarm should be at once sent out, but at the same time a vigorous effort 
should be made to put out the fire with the means at hand; for sometimes 
what the fire engine is unable to accomplish when it reaches the scene can 
be done by one or two persons who act promptly before the flames have 
had time to gain headway. 

First, then, do not be alarmed on account of smoke. Frequently there 
is a great deal of smoke before the fire has made much progress. Remem¬ 
ber that one can pass through smoke by keeping his head near the floor or 
by enveloping it in a wet woolen cloth. On entering a room to fight down, 
a fire single-handed, keep the door closed behind, if possible. A pail of 
water and a tin dipper in the hands of a resolute person can be made to 
work a miracle at the beginning. If the fire has progressed too far to 


MECHANICAL. 


131 

admit of this course, and it is necessary to depend entirely on outside help, 
then see to it that every door and window is closed. By so doing, where 
there is a fire-engine in the neighborhood, it will often be possible to con¬ 
fine the fire to one room. Every person who stops at a hotel should take 
special pains before retiring to note the location of the stairways, so that in 
case of an alarm he can find his way out even though the halls are filled 
with smoke. Never leave a room where there is an alarm of fire without 
first securing a wet towel, or, if possible, a wet sponge or piece of woolen 
cloth through which to breathe. If escape by the stairs is cut off, seek an 
outside window and stay there till help comes. Above all things be cool 
and have your wits about you. When a lady’s dress takes fire let her fall 
on the floor at once and call for help, in the meantime reaching for some 
rug or woolen cloth with which to smother the flames. There is nothing 
new in this advice. It has been repeated in one form or another hundreds 
of times; but it will bear repeating thousands of times. 

FOOT MUFF—How to make.— Those who take long rides in winter, 
are often obliged to resort to artificial means to keep their feet warm: 
hence hot bricks, heated blocks of wood, and jugs filled with hot water are 
variously used. The foot muff is a great improvement on all these. It 
may be made in different ways, one of the cheapest and most simple of 
which is as follows: Let the tinner make a square box, about one foot 
square, and two inches thick, so as to hold water. A screw, turned by a 
button, is inserted into one of the narrow sides—the screw hole should 
be large enough to admit a funnel. The box should be perfectly water¬ 
tight, the screw hole being the only place for the admission and egress of 
the water. If a suitable screw cannot be procured, solder in a short tin 
tube, about an inch long, to receive a cork, which is to be tightly pressed 
in. This box, when filled with hot water, which may be done in a few sec¬ 
onds, will retain heat a long time; but its efficiency may be greatly in¬ 
creased by encasing it with the muff. The box itself may be first covered 
with a piece of coarse carpeting, and then a sheep skin tanned with the 
wool on, sewed on the upper large flat side of the box, somewhat in 
the form or a broad shoe, with the wool inwards, and large enough to 
receive both feet. This essentially completes the foot-muff. The more 
expensive ones are covered with fur instead of sheep skin; and if the skins 
extend around the whole box, the heat of the water will be retained a 
longer time. A well made muff of this kind, filled with hot water and 
placed in the bottom of a sleigh, will continue warm for half a day. 

GATE— Small farm.— A writer gives the following description of a 
simple farm gate. It has no hinges, but operates like a set of bars, with 
the exception that the bars are all fastened together as in one piece, made 


i 3 2 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



light enough to handle readily and to be removed 
at a single operation. Such a gate never gets 
open by swinging, nor out of order by sagging. 
Each end of the fence at the opening is finished 
Fig. 142. as in fig. 142, the extra post being placed at one 

side of the other at a distance of a little more than the thickness of the 
boards—each end being on opposite sides of the post. The short cross¬ 
pieces hold up the ends of the gate. The gate is first placed where it is 
wanted and these cross-pieces are then nailed under the projecting ends of 
the boards. To open the gate, push it back a little and swing it around as 
far as at right angles, if desired, or remove it altogether. 

GATE— Self-shutting. —There are many plans resorted to for causing 
gates to shut of their own accord. For small or light gates, we believe that 



is opened. The form represented will nearly accom- Fig. 145. Same Enlarged, 
plish this purpose, its length being about equal to the distance between the 
post and small wheel on the end of the spring. This contrivance was 
patented many years ago and retailed at $1.50, the lever being simply made 
of steel rod. The patent has probably expired. 

GLASS—How to cut. —Let a pane or piece of glass be held between 
two pieces of soft-wood board, planed smoothly and true, and hold it in a 
vise firmly; if the edges of the two boards are even with each other the 
glass may be broken off very true. The boards will prevent its cracking 
beyond their edges. Glass may sometimes be cut with a sharp corner of 
an old file almost as well as it can be cut with a diamond. 

GLASS— Hand. —A cheap hand-glass is made by taking strips of board 
three inches wide, run the match plane, that makes the groove, near one 
edge, saw to such lengths as when nailed together in the form of a paralle¬ 
logram, it will just admit a pane of glass to slide in the grooves. One end 
















MECHANICAL. 


133 


should be lowered to admit the glass to slide over it. When not in use the 
glass can be taken out and put away. By their use the plants may be easily 
ventilated by sliding the glass, more or less, according to the temperature. 
The glass should be at least 8 by 10 inches; larger would be better. 

WHEEL GREASE.—Two parts hog’s lard by bulk, and one each of black- 
lead and wheat flour. We have heard wagons a mile off, on a still morning, 
uttering the most dismal sounds, from the want of a little of this material, 
and which a very little imagination translated into words—“ meeze-e-ry, 
meeze-e-ry, meeze-e-ry!” 

GRAIN SCOOP. A correspondent of the Genesee Farmer has success- 







fully used a grain scoop for filling bags, made as 
shown in fig. 146. One hand grasps the bow 
handle and the other the handle at the end. A 


Fig. 146. Grain Scoop. half bushel is easily scooped up at one opera¬ 
tion and the bags filled in one-half the time required in using the common 
scoop shovel. 

GRINDSTONES— Tarring. —A correspondent makes the following 
good suggestions: When you have a grindstone in perfectly straight face 
across the stone, take a little good tar and make a ring around the stone in 
the center, and it will cause it to ridge up in the middle,, so as to be more 
convenient for grinding a perfect edge on a tool. You need not tell your 
careless neighbor to please grind on the edge of the stone, for he cannot 
grind in the center—the tar will prevent him from gouging out the middle, 
and leaving the face irregular. 

HARNESS— Oiling.— Well kept harness will last many years; neg¬ 
lected, allowed to be dirty, dry and unoiled, it often wears out in two years. 
It should be washed once a month with castile soap, using a good sponge, 
and oiled at least twice a year. Take the harness apart, soak it in water 
only blood warm for a longer or shorter period, according to its dryness 
and stiffness, from one to three hours. Wash with castile soap, work till 
soft and pliant, and hang up to dry moderately. When half dry, oil the 
pieces, and let them dry a day longer; then rub with a coarse cloth. 

NEAT’S FOOT OIL.—The following mode of making the best neat’s 
foot oil is given by a correspondent: 

Take the feet of a beef, crush the bones well with a sledge or ax, and 
boil them in a large pot of water for twelve hours. Make two quarts of 
tallow from fresh beef or mutton suet, and pour it into a four-quart can 
(which should have a lid to keep out mice), and place it on a stove. Add 
a lump of pure yellow wax as large as a hen’s egg, stirring as it melts. 
Then fill up the can with neat’s foot oil, and removing it from the fire, con¬ 
tinue to stir until the intermixture is thoroughly complete. This, when cold, 





134 brand’s cyclopedia. 

will be of about the same consistency as hog’s lard. Keep in the can a 
bit of sponge always ready for use. It ought to be damp when it first 
goes into the grease, as it will remain more flexible always afterwards than 
if greased when dry. 

HARNESS AND BOOTS — Preserving. —A correspondent of the 
Country Gentleman, thinks the following preservative will make boots last 
twice as long as without it, keep dry feet and preserve health : Take two 
pounds beef tallow, half pound of rosin, quarter of a pound of besswax, 
and four ounces of castor oil. Melt slowly, adding and mixing well a 
heaped tablespoon of lampblack. Do not let it boil. When thoroughly 
melted and mixed, it is set aside for future use; when wanted for use, put 
a small quantity in a tin basin and melt it, do not let it boil. Apply to the 
leather quite warm, with a stout piece of cotton cloth, folded tightly and 
sewed strongly together, so as to be about two and a half inches long. 
Hold this in the fingers, and rub the composition well into the leather, 
holding the latter frequently over a hot stove. Apply both to soles and 
upper leather. In applying to harness, add about as much neat’s foot oil, 
to be applied warm near a stove. 

KNITTING HEELS.—To knit the heels of socks double, so that they 
may thus last twice as long as otherwise, skip every alternate stitch on the 
wrong side, and knit all on the right. This will make it double, like that of 
a double-ply ingrain carpet. 

HORSE-HITCHER —Movable.— Whoever drives a horse and buggy 
has been annoyed frequently for want of a hitching post. The figure shows 
the mode for making one, which may be carried under the 
seat, and used whenever wanted, by screwing into the 
ground. It may be done in the open field, by the roadside, 
or on the picnic or crowded fair ground. The hitcher is 

1' 1 4 ^• 1V1U V it" 

ble Horse Hitch- best made of steel, the largest size steel rod used for spring- 
er * tooth horse rakes answering a good purpose. Iron ro‘d 

mil do, but it must be larger (half an inch or five-eights in diameter,) and 
it will not enter the earth so easily. Any blacksmith may easily make one. 
The coil should be about three inches in diameter, but if the soil is soft and 
light, four inches may be necessary, although it is better to have it longer so 
as to penetrate further into the earth. The ring must be large enough to 
give the screw a good purchase in inserting it. These hitchers, made of steel, 
might be made by the hundred for twenty-five cents each. 

This contrivance also answers an excellent purpose for tethering a horse 
or other animal, while nibbling grass in a back yard, fence comer or border 
of a cultivated field. 

HOUSES— Leaking. —There are very few common houses built of 



MECHANICAL. 


135 


wood that will not, after a long season of drought, leak badly at some 
places, when heavy rains occur. The best cement for stopping all cracks 
or openings where the rains enter, is a mixture of sand and white lead 
paint. 

ICE-HOUSES.—These, when constructed of wood and boards, are 
severely tested in their durability by the moisture flowing from the melting 
ice. Nothing can, therefore, be more effectual in preventing decay than to 
coat all the timbers and boards with gas tar, when they are dry or well 
seasoned. This treatment will prolong their durability many times. 

ICE-HOUSES— Filling. —A good deal of labor is sometimes lost by 
not adopting the easiest mode of lifting the ice out of the water. After 
the blocks are sawed in the watei (which should be done by accurate meas¬ 
urement, so that all may pile 
up solid, like hewn stone, and 
leave no crevices,) they are 
very easily and quickly drawn 
Fig. 150.—Drawing ice out of water for ice-house- out by means of a light, Stiff 

plank, having a cleat across one end. This plank is thrust with its cleat 
into the water, and under the block of ice; the cleat holds it, when the 
plank is drawn forward, and thus lifts it out. 

KNIFE-BOARD— Improved. —The board B is three feet long by one 
and a half wide. A is a scouring brick made from fine clay—an excellent 

__article for the purpose can be had at all gro- 

. /"'a l&L b’ cers - C is a piece of buff leather nailed or 
firmly attached to the board as shown. It is 

Fig. 151.—Knife-board. well to nail a half-inch strip on the edge of the 
board, to prevent the sand, etc., from falling off. This board occupies but 
little space, is cheaply and quickly made, and will be found to answer the 
purpose admirably. A high polish can be given to the knives by a few 
strokes over the leather. 

LADDERS —Sharp feet for.— Ladders are nearly always made with 
blunt, rounded or square ends; and as a consequence, when 
placed upon a smooth surface, especially if frozen or icy, there 
is danger of their slipping or falling. The lower ends should 
always be sharp or wedge-form (fig. 152.) If much used, they 
should be shod with iron—the simplest mode of doing which, 

ng* i # 1 . 

Sharp Feet for is to take an iron strap, bend it by heating m a fire or forge, 

Ladder. t0 a s harp angle in the middle, so as to fit the wedge form of 
the feet, and then nail it on through holes punched for the purpose. 

LAMP LIGHTERS.—These may be easily made by tearing waste 
paper into strips an inch wide, and rolling these strips neatly by beginning 















brand’s cyclopedia. 


136 



num 

US 

Fig. 154. 


at the upper corner and rolling nearly but not quite parallel with the side 
of the strip. When completed, bend up and pinch the lower end to pre¬ 
vent unrolling. A little practice will give them a very neat appearance. If 
desired, they may be made long enough to run down the chimney of a 
kereosene lamp. 

LEATHER GLOVES—To remove spots from.— Suspend them in a 
glass jar, closed, over a portion of the strongest liquid ammonia. The 
gaseous ammonia gradually removes the spots; but great care is to be 
taken that the liquid does not touch the gloves, or the color will be badly 
injured. 

LIGHTNING RODS.—The best is a single rod, with the point extend¬ 
ing upwards near the centre of the building, and the rod passing down by 
the shortest way. Itinerant rod erectors, who charge by the foot, find it to 
their interest to bristle the roofs of houses and barns with many points, 
which are connected together by various hori¬ 
zontal pieces of iron, and then with the earth 
by one or more perpendicular rods. Each chim¬ 
ney is regarded as positively requiring its point, 
as shown in fig. 153, and sometimes several 
more are added. If these are all perfectly firm and secure, so as never to 
become displaced, and are well connected with the horizontal portion on 
the roof, and with the downward one to the earth, they may answer the pur¬ 
pose. But we should much prefer a single rod in the centre, fig. 154, sup¬ 
ported by a small wood standard (set in the ridge timbers,) and extending 
to the earth by bending down along the roof and side wall, in the rear. The 
expense would also be greatly diminished, inasmuch as one point and one 
rod are cheaper than several. All that it is necessary to observe is, the 
point of the rod should be one-half as high above the tops of the chimneys, 
as the horizontal distance to them from the rod. The same rule will apply 
to bams. Fig. 155 shows the way in which 
three points (and sometimes more) are com¬ 
monly put up on such buildings. A much better 
Fl g* I 55 * Fl g- r 5 6 - mode is exhibited by fig. 156—taking care to 
secure the requisite height. If a rod always enters water, the water forms a 
good conductor to dissipate the fluid—but if the water is drawn off below 
the lower end of the rod, the latter may become a dangerous appendage, 
by drawing down the lightning without furnishing it a ready means of 
escape. On the whole, permanently moist earth, which may usually be found 
at a depth of six or eight feet, may be best. 

LOGS AND PLANKS—To prevent the splitting of.— Logs and 
planks split at the ends because the exposed surface dries faster than the 




MECHANICAL. 


137 



Fig. 157 - 



Fig. 158. 


inside. Saturate muriatic acid with lime, and apply like whitewash to the 
ends. The chloride of calcium formed attracts moisture from the air and 
prevents the splitting. Tobacconists’ signs, and other wooden images, have 
usually a hole bored through their centre, from top to bottom ; this in a great 
measure prevents the outer surface from cracking, by allowing the wood to 
dry and shrink more uniformly. 

LOGS— Splitting. —But few understand the system of splitting logs, 
and the consequence is about one-half the timber is spoiled, besides much 
valuable time wasted. Even with these disadvantages, after the rails are 
split, some are found too large, others too small, while others will be twice 
as large at one end as at the other. In 
fig. 157 we show the sawed end of a log 
ready to split. So far it looks easy, but 
by taking a piece of red chalk, or a car¬ 
penter’s black marking pencil, and with 
the aid of a straight edge draw the two 
marks or diameters across it at right angles, as shown by the larger lines, the 
work is begun on a system. After doing this, then where the dotted lines 
are seen, draw two other lines. As will be easily seen this will cut the log 
into eight pieces, and each piece of the same size with the other. After this 
it should again be subdivided according to its size. If the log is a large 
one it can be divided up in more pieces than a small one—if, say, twenty- 
four inches, or a little more in diameter, it may be laid out for fifty-six rails, 
as shown in fig. 158 ; varying with the intended use of the rails. If for a 
common worm fence, the rails are about the same measure in breadth and 
thickness; but if for post and rail fence, they should be flat and broad. 
Either of these forms may be easily made by increasing or diminishing the 
number of the cross-connections between the radiating lines. 

Fig. 159 shows a smaller log, one about eighteen inches in diameter, 
marked for splitting into twenty-four rails, and fig. 160 another log some¬ 
what larger and straighter, and with fewer knots, marked for splitting in 
thirty-two flat rails and eight common 
ones. These instructions are so sim¬ 
ple that any one of ordinary intelligence 
Fig- 1 59 - can understand and practice them, and Fig. 160. 
can easily mark out any log, no matter what the size may be, by a little 
thought. After doing this the splitter will proceed rapidly with his work, 
without any hesitation, or without being compelled to stop and think where 
he shall next set his wedge. By this means he will not only save time and 
timber, and turn out better and more uniform rails, but will also save much 
trouble. 







brand’s cyclopedia. 


138 


Any one who has had experience in splitting wood of any kind, knows 
full well that in order to prevent the cleft from running off on one side or 
the other, it should be nearly in the middle of the stick, hence the general 
and invariable rule to keep reducing the size of the sections, not as many 
would suppose, by taking a rail from the side, but by striking through the 
middle. The log should, therefore, 
be first split in two, and these halves 
again split into four quarters, one of 

_ which is shown in fig. 161. This 

Fig. 161. again to be split into two parts, fig. 

162, and those again split as before in two parts. In this way there will 
be but little tendency to form uneven rails; and if the cleft is controlled 
somewhat by striking the wedge or axe a little ahead, no trouble need be 
feared. 

MATERIAL FOR REPAIRS.—Every farmer, and especially those who 
are some distance from mechanics’ shops, should be well provided with all 
the usual materials for repairing tools, implements, etc., as the delay in their 
use is often many times greater than the cost of putting them in order. 
Provide boxes with apartments, and purchase at hardware stores a supply of 
screws and nails of different sizes, screw-bolts with nuts, and nuts alone, rivets, 
coarse and fine annealed iron wire, copper wire and pieces of copper straps, 
common and tarred cord, twine, scraps of leather, paint with paintbrushes, 
varnish and all the necessary tools. The great flexibility of copper wire 
and copper straps renders them very useful on many occasions. 




Fig. 162. 



Fig. 163. Measuring Corn in Crib. 

MEASURING— Corn in the crib.— Multiply the length, breadth and 
height together, in feet, to obtain the cubic feet; multiply this product by 
four, and strike off the right figure, and the result will be shelled bushels, 
nearly. 

MEASURING— Hay, wt. to be estimated.— Hay is usually sold by 
the ton, but on account of its bulk is often inconvenient to weigh. In 
general the following relations of weight to bulk are reliable: 






MECHANICAL. 


139 


New mown hay 
Loaded and stored 
Well settled 
Baled 


Cubic yards to the ton 
25 

. . . 20 

15 

. . . 10 



Fig. 165. 


It remains to estimate the number of cubic yards. If the stack or mow 

be square or rectangular, multiply 
together the length, breadth, and 
half the height in yards. If the 
stack be long and triangular, mul¬ 
tiply together the length and half 
the height in yards. If the stack 
be circular, multiply together the 
square of the circumference by 
.04 of the height in yards. To 
calculate the price of a given 
number of pounds of hay, multiply the number of pounds by one-half 
the number of dollars per ton, and point off three places. Thus, at $30 
per ton, 400 pounds are worth, 480x15=7.20. 

MEASURING— Acres in a field.— To estimate the number of acres 
in a certain field, remember that an acre equals 160 rods, or 4,840 yards, 
or 43,560 feet. Hence measure the length and breadth of the field in rods, 
divide by 16, and point off one place; or measure it in yards or paces, 
multiply length by breadth, and divide successively by 11, 11 and 4. 

LIVE CATTLE—To estimate weight.— The superficial feet of ani¬ 
mals are estimated by multiplying the feet 
of girth just behind the shoulder-blade by 
the feet of length of back from tail to fore 
part of the shoulder-blade. Thus an ox 
whose girth is eight feet six inches, and 
length six feet, would measure 8Jx6=56 
Fig. 164. Measuring Live Cattle, superficial feet. This assumes the shape 
of the body to be cylindrical, and is, of course, only an approximation. 
For ordinary estimates,, the following may be regarded as the rate per 
superficial foot: 



Pounds. 


Girth less than 3 feet - - - - - - - - II 

“ from 3 to 5 “ - - - - - - - - -16 

“ from 5 to 7 “ - - - - - - - -23 

“ from 7 to 9 “ - - - - - - - - -31 


Thus, an ox of the size alluded to would weigh about, 51x31=1,581 lbs. 
MEASURING— Height of trees. —It is often desirable to determine 
the height of a tree, if not with mathematical correctness, at least with 
something approaching accuracy. There are instruments made for the 








140 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


purpose of measuring with great precision, but there are several methods 
by which the height can be ascertained without expensive appliances. By 
measuring the shadow of a rod or other object of a known length and the 
shadow of a tree, a simple sum will give the height. Suppose we measure 
the shadow of a perpendicular rod six feet long, or that of a man of the 
same height, and find it to measure eight feet, and then measure the shadow 
of the tree and find it to be one hundred and thirty-two feet; then 
as 8 ft. : 6 ft. : : 132 ft. : 99 ft. 

The Gardeners 1 Chronicle figures a simple quadrant for tree-measuring 
which we here explain. A quarter of a circle is made of some light wood, 
and a small plumb-bob is suspended from what would be the center of the 
circle, and a mark made just half-way of the curved side of the quadrant. 
Two small eyes for sights attached to one of the straight edges make the 
implement complete. The quadrant is held by the operator, moving back¬ 
ward or forward until he can see the top of the tree through both sights, 
the plumb-line at the same time hanging over the mark. The distance of 
the observer from the tree, when he can see the top of it in this manner, will 
be the height of the tree. Allowance must be made for the height of the 
eye from the ground, and for any difference in the level of the ground 
between the tree and the observer. 

Another method.— In his tale of Monsieur Violet Captain Marryat 
gives, as an instance of great aptitude for applying simple rules possessed 
by the Shoshonee Indians, that when they desired to measure the height of 
a tree at any time when its shadow was cast on the ground, they would 
drive a stick a given length into the ground, and then, calculating the differ¬ 
ence between the length of its shadow and its actual height, and applying 
the same to the shadow of the tree, they ascertained its correct height, thus 
unknowingly working out a sum in the rule of three. Any person, however 
ill-informed, might easily get at the exact height of a tree when the sun shines, 
or during bright moonlight, by marking two lines on the ground three feet 
apart, and then placing in the ground on the line nearest to the sun a 
stick that would stand exactly three feet out of the soil. When the end of 
the shadow of the stick exactly touches the farther line, then also the shadow 
of the tree will be exactly in length the same measurement as its height. Of 
course in such a case the sun will be at an exact angle of forty-five degrees. 
Measurements of this character could be best effected in the summer when 
the sun is powerful, has reached to a good height in the heavens, and when 
the trees are clothed with living green, so as to cast a dense shadow. To 
many to whom this idea might not have occurred, it might be made annu¬ 
ally a matter of interest thus on warm summer days to take the height of 
prominent trees, and so to compare notes of growth from year to year. 


MECHANICAL. 


I 4 I 


MEASURING IMPLEMENT.—Make the implement as shown in the 
cut, but lighter, with the points four feet and one 
and a half inches apart. It may be used for meas- 
/A, uring rapidly, by walking it along a ditch or furrow. 

_ // \\ It is much more accurate than the common mode of 

Fig. 166. —Measurin^m- P adn S’ and ab ° Ut aS faSt after a little P ractice ‘ 
plement. Four measures will make a rod, or if the points are 

made five and a half feet apart, three will make a rod. 

MEASURER —Land.— Every farmer should understand how to meas¬ 
ure his lands, to know the number of acres he owns, and the amount in dif¬ 
ferent fields. With the instruments we give below any one can measure his 
own farm without resorting to the aid of a surveyor. One of the most rap¬ 
id and convenient modes is the use of a light angular wheel, which is thrust 
forward as fast as the measurer walks. Fig. 167 represents a wheel for this 

purpose, made of strips of wood a little 
larger than common lath—lightness being 
very important, in order to prevent the suc¬ 
cessive jerking which would take place if 
the implement were heavy, as each point 
strikes the earth. The wheel is of such a 
Fig. 167—Land Measurer. size as to revolve once at every rod in 
length. To effect this purpose the strips must be 32 1 inches long from the 
centre (as calculated by trigonometry,) which will give 24J inches from 
point to point. To construct this wheel, take a round piece of board about 
an inch thick, and saw radiating spaces into it, shaving the wood between 
the saw cuts out with a sharp chisel, fig. 168, then lay in the 
strips and screw them in. Then screw on another round piece 
of board and the hub will be complete. The radiating strips 
or spokes should be fitted with accuracy, so as to be firm, and 
the points at equal distances. Then measure from point to point, and if 
all are accurately 24! inches apart, the measurements of the land will also 
be correct, 8 times 24! inches being 16 J feet. It is best to drive a nail length¬ 
wise into the end of each arm or spoke, before whittling it down sharp, as 
this will prevent the point from wearing down and becoming ultimately too 
short. A straight, smooth piece of rod iron, with a crew and nut on one 
end, is then inserted for an axle; and two strips of board placed on each 
side to receive the ends of the axle. A washer made of sole leather may 
be placed on each side of the wheel and inside the strips of board. These 
two strips have blocks placed between them to keep them at suitable dis¬ 
tances apart, and a cross-bar is passed through the rear end for a handle. 
For measuring farms of moderate size this will be sufficient, with the addi- 



Fig. 168. 





142 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



tion of a strip of red cloth on one of the spokes, so that each revolution 
may be easily seen by the operator as he pushes the machine before him. 
For more extensive work two wheels, for recording, are to be attached, as 
shown in fig. 169. These may be about six inches 
in diameter and made of inch board. They are 
placed in the space in which the wheel revolves, 
which must be made wide enough for this purpose. 
Fig. 169. The first has twenty small, headless nails driven in¬ 

to its circumference at equal distances, projecting half an inch or more. A 
short tooth projects from the axle (easily inserted by drilling a hole,) and 
so situated that at every revolution it comes against one of the nails, thus 
pushing the wheel on a short distance. At the next revolution it pushes 
another nail on. In this way the wheel revolves once for every twenty rods. 
On the axle of this wheel is a similar single tooth, which comes successive¬ 
ly against one of the sixteen nails of a second wheel, made like the first. 
Thus the second wheel revolves once in a mile, or 320 rods, and long dis¬ 
tances may be easily counted without much trouble to the observer. It 
may be used to measure roads, either on foot or by being drawn behind a 
wagon. The wheels should have enough friction at the axles to prevent any 
possibility of their slipping, which is easily effected by a spring pressing the 
axles, or by boring a hole down close beside the bearing, and thrusting in a 
wooden plug or wedge, so as to press moderately against the axles. 

This machine may be made of pine, which is light and sufficiently stiff, 
but the arms or spokes should be of oak or other hard wood. If they are 
half an inch thick and two inches wide at the hub, tapering to an inch or 
less at the outer end, we have found them to be quite stiff enough. Any in¬ 
genious farmer who has a workshop will readily make one for himself. 

The measurements will, of course, be most correct on smooth, hard 
ground. On a freshly plowed field they will be attended with considerable 
inaccuracy, and should be made after the field is harrowed and settled. It 
is always advisable to prove the work on a piece of measured ground, to see 
if the spokes are of the right length. With iron points to the arms, meas¬ 
urements may be rapidly made on hard crusted snow. 

For shorter distances, as gardens, village lots, etc., very accurate meas¬ 
uring may be effected by a light eleven-foot pole, three lengths of which make 
P 33 feet or two rods. A blacksmith will make 

' ' 1 ■ a good handle of round iron, as shown in fig. 

lg * I7 °* i7°» a screw being cut on the lower end for 

insertion into the rod. Thin bladed knives, or slits of tin, may be thrust 
into the ground against the ends, by which one person will do the measur¬ 
ing alone—the handle being placed near one end for this purpose. 





MECHANICAL. 


143 


MEASURING— Timber in the tree. —A simple method, and one that 
can be put in practice at any time and place, when one has only a measur¬ 
ing rod, and has the experience of the writer, as follows: A stick of tim¬ 
ber is desired, say fifty feet long. Select your tree, measure fifty feet in a 
direct line from the foot of the tree on as near level ground as possible; 
now cut a stick the exact height of the observer, and stick in the ground 
exactly perpendicular; now let the observer lie flat on his back, his feet 
against the stick and head in line of tree and stick, and look directly over 
the top of the stick, and where the line of vision strikes the tree will be the 
length of stick (fifty feet) desired. If the ground is not level, the measure 
will not be exact, but allowance must be made. 

MEASUREMENT —Self, rules for.— The following rules will enable 
persons in the country to avail themselves of the services of clothiers in 
the city without the necessity of a personal visit. To insure an accurate 
fit, all measures should be taken with care, and height and weight correctly 
given 

Coat —Height-Inches. Weight-Lbs. Take these measures out¬ 

side the coat: 


es. 


From A to B -inches, and on to Cl¬ 

inches. From H to I for 

elbow point-inches, 

and on to K for length of 

sleeve-inches. 

Take these measures 
under the coat: 

From D to E around the 

breast-inches. 

From F to G around the 
waist-inches. 

Fig. iji . Vest —Height - Inch- 

Weight-Lbs. Take these measures over the waistcoat: 

From 1 at centre of the back round the inside edge of the collar, to 




height required for top buttons-inches. 

From top button to 2 for length in front-inches. 

From 3 to 4 round the breast-inches. 

From 5 to 6 round the waist-inches. 






















144 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Pants —Height-Inches. Weight-Lbs. 

From A to B round the 

waist-inches. 

From C to D top to 

bottom-inches. 

From centre of fork, 
close up, down to K for 
length of leg inside, 
keeping the leg straight 

down-inches. 

F to G round the seat 
-inches. 

From H to /round the 
bottom-inches. 

Fig. 173. L round the knee- 

inches. 

Boys’ Suits —Height-Inches. Age- 

Weight-Lbs. 

From nape of neck to heel of boot- 

inches. 

Round the neck as for shirt-inches. 

From If to I for elbow point-inches. 

On to K for length of sleeve-inches. 

Round the breast, underneath the outside garment-inches. 

Round the waist, underneath the outside garment-inches. 

Length of the trousers inside the legs—measure as in trousers above, from 
centre of fork down to K -inches. 

Shirt —No. 1 round the neck-. No. 2 length of sleeve; measure 

with arm bent as in coat, from centre of back, round the elbow, to within 

one-half inch of the knuckle-. No. 3, round the hand-. No. 4, 

round the chest. Each measure to be in inches, and the number of the 
same to be given. 

NUTS— Screwing on. —We have sometimes known nuts on threshing 
machines, circular saws, etc., to be found so tight that no wrench would 
remove them. This was because they had been held in the hand till they 
became warm, and being then applied to very cold screws in winter, they 
contracted by cooling after on, and thus held the screw with an immovable 
grasp. Always avoid putting a warm nut on a cold screw; and to remove 
it, apply a large heat-iron in contact with the nut, so as to heat and expand 
it, and it will loosen at once—or a cloth wet with boiling water will accom¬ 
plish the same purpose. 


































MECHANICAL. 


MS 


NAILS, NUTS, SCREWS AND BOLTS—One of the component parts 
of a good farmer is mechanical ingenuity. Some lose half a day’s valuable 
time for want of knowing how to repair a breakage, which an ingenious 
person could do in five minutes. A team and two or three men are some¬ 
times stopped a whole day, at a critical season, for want of a little mechani¬ 
cal skill. 

It is well for every farmer to have at hand the facilities for repairing. In 
addition to the more common tools, he should keep a supply of nails of 
different sizes, screws, bolts, and nuts; common cut nails are too brittle for 
repairing implements, or other similar purposes. Buy only the very best 
and anneal them, and they will answer all the ordinary purposes of the 
best wrought mails. To anneal them, all that is necessary is to heat them 
red hot in a common fire, and cool them gradually. Let them cool, for 
instance, by letting them remain in the fire while it bums down and goes out. 
One such nail, well clinched, will be worth half a dozen unannealed. Noth¬ 
ing is more common than for a farmer to visit the blacksmith shop to get a 
broken or lost bolt or rivet inserted, and often a single nut on a bolt. This 
must be paid for, and much time is lost. By providing a supply of bolts, 
nuts and rivets, much time and trouble may be saved. They may be pur¬ 
chased by the quantity at a low rate. These should all be kept in shallow 
boxes, with compartments made for the purpose, furnished with a bow- 
handle for convenience in carrying them. One box with half a dozen 
divisions, may be appropriated to nails of different sizes; and another, 
with as many compartments, to screws, bolts, rivets, etc. 

OX BOWS— Fastenings. —Every one who has yoked a pair of oxen 
has experienced the difficulty of holding up one end of a heavy yoke 
while inserting the bow and keying it in. The labor is much lessened by 
attaching a spring snap or catch to the bow, so that when simply thrust 
through the hole in the yoke (fig. 175,) it fastens itself without any other 
attention. This is effected by inserting a large unannealed 
wire, so that it shall act on each side in a manner simi- 
c ^ lar to the catch of an umbrella. A small iron plate with a 
Fi Ir I OxBow! hole in it as large as the bow, should be secured to the 
top of the yoke for these springs to rest upon. 

Another mode of fastening the bow without employing a spring, is shown 
in fig. 176. A common butt or small door hinge is used 
for this purpose, and is screwed on to the top of the 
yoke, so that its movable part may cover about one-fourth 
or one-fifth of the hole. A notch is cut into the bow to 

9 JL’ X J \J L/tllUl 

correspond with this projecting edge of the hinge. On for Ox Bow. 
inserting the bow, this half of the hinge is thrust upwards, but drops and 
secures it as soon as it reaches the notch. 9 




14 6 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


PIN—To make stay in a garment.— Sometimes it is almost impossible 
to make a pin stay in one’s clothes, and this is especially true when a gar¬ 
ment has been made stiff with starch, like a shirt collar. When pins are 
new and straight they will work out very readily; but let them be bent a 
little and they will “ stay put.” Let valuable shawl pins and collar pins be 
bent a little, making them full of kinks, and they will seldom work out of a 
garment. 

PUMPS— Chain, putting in order.— S. E. Todd states that chain 
pumps, by continued use, get out of order by the chain lengthening or 
becoming loose. It will then get entangled, and often stop the pump, and 
breakage frequently follows. To repair the difficulty, take out a few links 
from the pump, so that it will fit the reel tight, and it will run like a new top. 
If the tube has got worn too large for the chain, so it will not raise the water 
properly, procure some light sole or heavy harness leather, cut into circular 
washers a trifle larger than the buckets; make a hole or slit in the centre; 
take the chain apart and slip on one of the washers next above the bucket, 
having it fit snugly. There should be only about four or five to any well, 
no matter what the depth is, for if there are more than two in the tube at 
once when drawing, the suction will be too great. Trial will show how large 
the washers should be left. 

PUMPS—To thaw frozen. —Some throw in salt, some heat iron rods, 
etc., but an imcomparably better way is to place a small lead pipe within 
the pump, and pour in hot water by means of a funnel. The pipe should 
be as long as the frozen portion; and conducting the boiling water right on 
the ice, removes it with astonishing rapidity, say one foot per minute, the 
pipe settling as rapidly. Where pumps are liable to freeze, it is well to have 
a lead pipe always at hand. 

PUTTY KNIFE—How to make a.— Take a piece of band iron about 
£ of an inch thick and an inch and a half wide, and six or eight long, 
and cut off the corners on one end, as shown by the accompanying figure, 
punch a hole in the other end to hang it up by; now grind the corners 
smoothly and true, and grind it flat on one side, and level it on the other 

side like a chisel. After grinding it, scour it 
bright on a whetstone of very fine grit, or with 
scouring grit, so that it will slip well on the 
putty; if the surface is coarse, rough or rusty, the putty will not slip on it, 
and putty cannot be spread well with it. This kind of a knife can be made 
in a few minutes, and is superior to all others. 

RAWHIDE— Use of.— How few persons know the value of rawhide. It 
seems almost strange to see them sell all their “ deacon ” skins for the small 
sum of thirty or forty cents. Take a strip of well-tanned rawhide an inch 



Fig. 177. Putty Knife. 




MECHANICAL. 147 

wide, and a horse can hardly break it by pulling back—two of them he 
cannot break any way. 

Cut into narrow strips and shave the hair off with a sharp knife, to use 
for bag-strings; the strings will out-last two sets of bags. Farmers know 
how perplexing it is to lend bags and have them returned minus strings. 

It will out-last hoop-iron (common) in any shape, and is stronger. It is 
good to wrap around a broken thill- -better than iron. 

Two sets of rawhide halters will last a man’s life-time (if he don’t live too 
long.) 

In some places the Spaniards use rawhide log-chains to work cattle with, 
cut into narrow strips and twisted together hawser fashion. It is good to 
tie in for a broken link in a trace chain. It can be tanned so it will be soft 
and pliable, like harness leather. Save a cow and “ deacon’s pelt,” and 
try it. 

RAZOR STROPS.—Oxide of tin, as many know, has a fine sharpening 
quality, and it is extensively used for coating the leather of strops. When 
they have lost their efficiency, rub them briskly for a short time across a tin 
vessel, and enough will be imparted for the intended purpose. 

RACK— For drawing wood. —The accompanying figure shows a con¬ 
venient, spacious and substantial form for con¬ 
structing a frame or rack for drawing cord wood 
on a two-horse farm wagon. The side pieces 
are twelve feet long, three by four inches, and 

Fig. 178. Wood Rack. rest on the ends of six cross pieces, which are 
two feet apart from center to center, and to 5 inchesin 
size. They are secured to the side pieces by the iron shown 
a (fig. 179,) made of f rod iron. At #, ft, and c, the 
relative position of the pieces is shown. A , iron for hold¬ 
ing cross-pieces; ft, cross-section of side timbers; c , 
lower portion of stake; d, cross-piece. The stakes are 3 feet long, ij by 
3 inches at the bottom, tapering upwards to ij inches square at the top. 
They are made of oak or other strong wood. The two at each end are 
secured with iron pins below the cross-pieces; the intermediate ones are 
merely set in and not pinned. The stakes incline about twenty degrees 
from the vertical, so as to give ample room between them. 

ROOFS— Leaks In. —During hot, dry summers, wood contracts, and 
leaks are often found in roofs. The trap-door at the house-top was thus 
made to leak badly. The carpenter proposed to batten it, but the writer 
directed that white lead paint, having enough fine, clean sand mixed with 
it to become about as thick as buckwheat batter, or thin mortar, should 
be put into the cracks, and not a drop of water has since passed them. 



Kg. 179. 








148 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



REFRIGERATORS— Out Door. —The accompanying figure repre¬ 
sents an inexpensive contrivance for keeping milk, butter and other perish¬ 
able articles in hot weather. Its size may vary with the 
wants of the owner, but the larger the ice-chamber is, the 
less frequently it would require filling, and if sufficiently 
large, it would keep ice all summer. The walls (see en¬ 
graving) are double and filled with sawdust, as common 
in ice houses. The door, a , is double, with a space of 
three or four inches in it, filled with sawdust to exclude 
the heat. Two doors, one opening outward, and one 
opening inward, would be more perfect. Whether one or 
and Section^of two > they should be made to fit very closely. These doors 
Door Refrigerator, open into the refrigerator, which is kept cool by the ice 
above. The joists b must be stout, so as to hold several tons of ice above, 
provided a large sized building is erected. They are cut down towards the 
centre, so as to form a trough for the discharge of the water from the melt¬ 
ing ice. On these joists galvanized sheet-iron is laid. On this the ice is 
deposited, and the iron being thus kept constantly cold, cools the air in the 
apartment below, by the natural descent of the cold air. By sprinkling 
sawdust over the iron floor, the thawing of the ice will be retarded, and 
thus its melting and duration may be entirely controlled, according to the 
depth of this layer of sawdust. The door c receives 
the ice, and the window d , kept always open, is for ven¬ 
tilation. There should be one in each end. The freer 

Fig. jgj _Section this ventilation the better the ice will keep—being cov- 

of Discharge Pipe. ere d with eight or ten inches of sawdust. It is better 
to line it with a few inches of sawdust at the sides, in addition to the 
sawdust walls. There is no use in a double roof. 

The water from the melting ice runs down into the trough, and thence 
into a lead pipe, which being bent, as shown in fig. 181, allows the water 
to escape freely, but excludes perfectly the warm air from without. 

REIN PROTECTOR.—Annexed is a contrivance (fig. 182,) to keep 
i, the rein from getting under the end of the wagon tongue 
while teaming. The cord passes through the ring in the 

Fig. 182. end of the tongue. 

ROCKS— Removing. —A correspondent of the Rural New Yorker gives 
the following mode of sinking rocks:—“ Dig by the side of the rock a hole 
large enough and deep enough to receive the stone and put it below the 
plow. When you have dug to the lower side of the rock, place a prop 
against it and the bank so as to hold it firm, and then dig under it a short 
distance to ascertain its size; then spade the hole to receive it. When all 















MECHANICAL. 


149 

is ready, take out the tools and pull out the prop, and if the rock does not 
drop, a pry on the opposite side will soon drop it; then cover it over. It 
requires much less hard work to let a rock drop down than to raise it out 
of its bed, and the labor of drawing it away is a clear gain. The thing is 
out of the way, and an eye-sore no longer.” 

SHINGLES —Fire-proof.— A correspondent states in the Boston Cul¬ 
tivator , that after an experience of eleven years, and using seven forges in 
his blacksmith shop, he has never seen a shingle on fire nor has a nail started. 
White-wash was made in a large trough, of a bushel of lime, half a bushel 
of salt, and five or six pounds of potash, The shingles were set in up to 
the bands for two hours, and then turned end for end. When laid on the 
roof they were brushed over at intervals of two or three years after. Quite 
dry shingles would absorb this wash the best, and with the bunches opened. 

SHINGLES— Preserving. —Every farmer knows that the cost of the 
roofs of his buildings, as well as keeping them in repair, is a large item in 
his expenditures. Experiments should be made to lessen this cost. We 
observe the following in a late paper: Dip the shingles in a tub of white¬ 
wash made of lime and salt. Line with red chalk. The carpenter may get 
a little lime on his hands and linen pantaloons, but this difficulty is not a 
very formidable one. The lime will harden the wood, and prevent its wear¬ 
ing away by rain and weather, and will effectually exclude moss, a common 
hastener of decay. It is said that shingle roofs will last twice as long when 
treated in this way, as without it. 

Whitewashing each successive layer of shingles, after nailing down, is 
sometimes adopted, but is less effectual. Whitewashing the roof when com¬ 
pleted, is comparatively useless, as the lime, or but little of it, can enter 
between the shingles, where the water lodges and hastens decay. 

Some may object that this operation is “ troublesome,” but so is nearly 
everything that is done in a thorough and consequently economical manner. 

SHOEING— Frequent best.— Farmers are apt to insist on having their 
horses’ shoes “ put on to stay,” making this point the only one insisted upon. 
The rapid growth of the hoof soon renders the best shoe unfitted for the 
foot. Shoes for farm horses should be so put on that they will stay tight, 
or nearly so, for five or six weeks, and then be taken off and re-fitted. It 
causes the expense of “ setting ” some five or six times more during the 
year, but saves many a lameness, besides keeping the feet always sound 

SINK— Improved.— Many a housewife has washed her dishes for years 
on a table. The consequence is each time the table is soaked with grease 
and water, dripping on the floor and soiling dress and apron. Husband, 
if you have no sink, and if you desire to please your better-half, and save 
buying a few more yards of calico each year, also to improve the appear- 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


ISO 

ance of your kitchen, then proceed to make, or have made, that necessary 
article, a sink. The one illustrated below is cheap and quite simple in con¬ 
struction. The sink A is 4 feet long, 2 
feet 8 inches wide, and 7 inches high, made 
from inch oak wood, close jointed, to pre¬ 
vent leaking. The small frame shown in 
the back-ground is denominated the dish 
rack. Dishes will be washed in a pan on 
the bottom of the sink, and placed in an upright position on the grate B, 
and resting against the cross slats D. Knives, spoons, and all articles of 
this class are laid on the grate B. Standards C C are 1 by 2 inches; 
short ones 6 and long ones 14 inches in length above the top of the sink. 
Long slats D are J by 1 inch. Those in which the slats B B are morticed 
are 1 by 2J inches, hard wood. A section is shown in fig. 2. It is 8 inches 
long, 1 by 1 inch square, and notched as shown. For plates eight, and for 
saucers ten notches are made in each slat—for plates the slats are placed 
four, and for saucers three inches apart. Placing dishes in a vertical posi¬ 
tion they soon drain off ; consequently you can wipe more dishes, and those 
cleaner , without changing the towel. All refuse water passes through the 
discharge pipe E. Hang the wash-bowl upon a nail driven in the frame 
above E. The whole should be painted and varnished before being used. 
It should be about the height of a common table, and underneath a closet 
in which to keep kettles, dripping pans, bake pans, etc. Set the water pail 
on a bench at the side of the sink. Add whatever other conveniences 
you choose. 

SMOKE-HOUSE—A good.— We lately observed a well planned smoke¬ 
house on the premises of a good farmer, worthy of a brief description. 
It was about six feet square, the lower half built of brick, furnished with an 
iron lined door, and serving as an ash-house and place for the fire. The 
upper part, about four feet high besides the ascent of the roof, was made 
of wood. It was separated from the lower part by scantling joists, a space 
of two or three inches between them, through which smoke and air could 
freely pass, but suficient to catch any ham that might accidently fall, and 
thus save it from the fire. The upper part, as well as the lower, was entered 
by a door from the outside ; this upper door may be kept locked, except 
when admitting or withdrawing hams; but the lower may be left unlocked 
for the hired man to build fires, without any danger of the contents above 
being stolen, as the thief cannot pass through the openings between the 
joists. 

SNOW SHOVELS— Wooden.— When shoveling snow, »a person will 
be able to accomplish three times as much with a neatly made snow- 













MECHANICAL. 


151 

shovel, with less fatigue, also, than he could do the same work with a 
dirt shovel. When a spade or common dirt shovel is used for shovel¬ 
ing snow, the movements of the body and limbs cause more fatigue than 
the strength employed to shovel the snow. This is laboring at a decided 
disadvantage. When a laborer simply bends his body forward and moves 
his arms, as when using a shovel, he experiences certain degrees of 
fatigue, even if he performs no labor. Therefore, by having a large and 
light shovel with which he can raise a suitable number of pounds of snow, 
he is able to accomplish a vast deal of labor, with little fatigue. 

The illustration herewith given (fig. i 84 ) represents a wooden snow- 
shovel the blade of which is of some hard wood, 
not more than three-fourths of an inch thick, 
sixteen inches long and thirteen wide, with the 
entering edge dressed down to an even thick¬ 
ness of one-eighth of an inch, and covered with 
Fig. 184— Snow Shovel. t hi n sheet-iron, extending back three or more 
inches, on the underside, and one inch on the upper side. The end piece 
should be of hard wood, three-fourths of an inch thick by one and a half 
inches wide, secured to the upper side of the blade, instead of being nailed 
to the end, as such shovels are usually made. If the end piece is secured 
to the upper side, it operates as a cleat to keep the blade from warping. 
When the piece is nailed against the end of the blade, all the strain, when 
the shovel is in use, comes directly on the few nails that hold it. For 
this reason a shovel will not last half so long with the end-stick nailed 
to the end, as it will when on the upper side. 

The handle may be made of a piece of light timber, dressed out 
eight square; or a turned fork handle may be used. Two wood 
screws secure the handle to the blade. When the blade rests flat on the 
floor, the end of a handle four and a half feet long should be about twenty 
inches from the floor. This will give the shovel “ the right hang.” When 
such a shovel is used in the barn for shoveling chaff, or cut fodder, narrow 
pieces are nailed to the sides, either perpendicularly, or flaring outwards. 
Such a shovel is often much preferable to a small scoop shovel. 

SNOW-PLOW.—The deep snow throughout the country the past winter, 
made a great deal of hard labor in shoveling by hand. A simple snow¬ 
plow may be made by any farmer in a hour or two, and will open paths by 
means of a single horse, with ease and rapidity. The height of a plow 
may vary with the depth of the snow, which being very uncertain, it should 
be sufficient. A foot will answer for nearly all cases. Take two pieces of 
plank or thick board a foot wide and about five feet long, more or less, 
dress off one end of each in a wedged form on one side, so that when 



152 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


these two pieces diverge like a letter >, a width of three feet behind 
will be usually sufficient, and a board may be placed within, extending 
across so as to form a brace, by nailing. Sometimes a joint is made at the 
forward end and cross pieces of different lengths keyed in to make the 
plow wider or narrower as may be desired. A hook is attached to the 
forward end for the whipple tree, and a box seat placed on the top for the 
driver. By increasing or diminishing the distance between the hook and 
whipple tree, the forward end will run high or low as the nature of the 
snow may require. The driver has only to keep the horse in the right 
place, slightly guiding the plow by throwing his weight left or right. This 
snow may be used around the house, to front gate, to bams and other out¬ 
buildings, along village streets and elsewhere. A finishing touch may be 
given to these paths by hand when desirable. 

STUMP MACHINE.—A simple contrivance for allowing a succession 
of efforts in the use of the lever, and is used for tearing out the roots of 
partly decayed stumps. It may also be applied to lifting heavy weights, 
and to various other purposes. Two pieces of strong, three-inch white 
oak plank, eight inches wide, and seven feet long, are connected at the 
ends, and are furnished with a movable leg. Two rows of holes are bored 
through them, to receive iron pins, which are to serve as fulcrum. A 
strong lever is furnished at one end, which is first fastened on the root of 
the stump, and then one of the pins is inserted under the lever. The lever 
is now elevated, and the other bolt is placed under it. It is next pressed 
down, and the first bolt elevated one hole higher, and so on till the stump 
is torn out. To prevent the lever slipping, a notch is made on its undej 
side, on each side of the hook. 

A more powerful stump-extracting machine, made on precisely the same 
principle, is exhibited by figure 185. The lever, a , should be a strong stick 
of timber, furnished with three massive iron hooks, secured 
"^SSby bolts passing through, as represented in the figure. 
Small or truck wheels are placed at each end of the lever, 
merely for the purpose of moving it easily over the ground. 
The stump, b , used as a fulcrum, has the chain passing 
round near its base, while another chain passes over the 
top of the stump, c , to be torn out. A horse is attached 
to the lever at d, and moving to e, draws the other end of 
the lever backward, and loosens the stump; while in this 
position another chain is made to connect g to h, and the horse is turned 
about, and draws the lever backward to /, which still further increases the 
loosening; a few repetitions of this alternating process tears out the stump. 
Very strong chains are requisite for this purpose. Large stumps may require 



Fig. 185. 




MECHANICAL. 15 3 

an additional horse or a yoke of oxen. Where the stumps are remote from 
each other, iron rods with hooks may be used to connect the chains. 

The power which may be given to this and to all other modes of using 
the lever, as we have already seen, depends on the difference between the 
length of its two arms. A yoke of oxen drawing with a force of 500 
pounds on the large arm of a lever 25 feet long, will exert a force on the 
short arm of six inches, equal to 50 times 500 pounds, or 25,000 pounds, 
on the stump. 

STENCILING LETTERS—On portable articles. —Every one ought 
to have his name stenciled on his bags, umbrellas, buffalo robes, and all 
such articles that are liable to be lost easily. 

Mark out the letters or figures on a straight piece of tin, or sheet of lead 
or copper, and cut them through with a sharp chisel by placing the tin on 
a smooth plank of hard wood. Prepare some thin paint, and lay the name 
on the article to be stenciled, and apply the paint by raising the brush up 
and down instead of drawing it back and forth. 

The reason why names are blotted badly is because the paint is too thick 
or is put on too abundantly. There should be but a small quantity of 
paint in the brush in order to do it well, and the paint should be very thin. 

TABLES without castors should always be carefully lifted from one place 
to another. Nothing destroys a table more rapidly than shoving it on its 
legs across a floor. 

TACKLES AND LADDERS.—Tackles are very useful on a farm; they 
save much heavy lifting; they ought to have two blocks, and a three-quarter 
or inch rope will answer. It saves very much hard labor. It can be used to 
raise beeves and large hogs, and for hoisting corn up in the crib. Place a 
strap across from one handle to the other on the basket, leaving it long enough 
to throw over the side of the basket when filling, and having the tackle 
overhead and two baskets, you can unload corn very fast—for this you need 
a large hook on the lower block; but if you want to raise or lower bags, 
you need a chain with rings on each end (such as are used in grist mills) 
and slip-noose your bags. For a crib or granary overhead, nothing is pre¬ 
ferable to a good tackle ; it costs but little, and it is best to have hooks on 
both block. Ladders, too, are very useful on a farm, and have often saved 
buildings from fire; their cost is but trifling. For a long ladder they should 
be two feet wide at the bottom and eighteen inches at the top, and it is bet¬ 
ter to have flat pieces for the top, middle and bottom, pinned through the 
ends outside; smaller ladders should be narrower. Seasoned white oak 
rungs are best. Inch holes are large enough, if you get a good straight 
splitting chestnut the right size; be careful and you can split it, or you 
can saw it, which is the best, provided you have a good rip-saw. Cold 


154 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


chisels are much needed on a farm, but seldom seen. Socket wedges are- 
very useful to split rails, etc. 

TOOLS IN PLACES.—Farmers who have been in the practice of leav¬ 
ing their tools exposed to the weather the past season, should employ the 
first leisure evening in computing the relative advantages of exposure and 
shelter. Different implements are variously affected. A crowbar is only 
rusted by leaving it in the field; but that rust sticks to it all the next year, 
and makes rough and unpleasant handling. A spade and hoe are rusted 
at the blade, and hence do not run bright, easily, and clear through the 
soil afterwards ; and the handle at the socket becomes partly decayed, and 
finally breaks off. Figure up the cost of allowing a good hoe to become 
rusty, so that the man who uses it afterwards has to knock off the adhering 
soil a hundred and fifty times a day, or 1,500 times in ten days, besides, 
only doing two-thirds of a day’s work. Would it not be cheaper to cany- 
in the hoe at night ? Do you remember how long you hunted for it in the 
morning? Implements with many joints and pieces, as plows, harrows and 
cultivators, are more injured and rotted, and those like mowing machines,, 
which run by gearing, to a still greater degree, for all the difference between 
free and smooth running cog-work that has scarcely any friction, and a 
heavy, creaking, thumping motion, hard and weary for teams, results often 
from the rusty surfaces. 

VENTILATORS— For grain in bins. —Unless grain is very dry when 
it is stored in large bins, it is very liable to heat more or less, and to be¬ 
come musty, which will injure it for market or for home consumption, or 
for seed. It is usually found to be very difficult to keep buckwheat in a 
bin during the warm weather of spring and summer, because it will heat 
and become mouldy. 

In order to prevent grain from heating while it is in bins, saw a round hole 
about six inches in diameter in the bottom of the bin, 
and place a sheet iron ventilator, like the accompanying 
illustration, over the hole; then by having small win¬ 
dows in the sides of the granary, there will be a com¬ 
plete circulation of air through the grain. 

This kind of ventilators may be made of either tin or 
sheet-iron, about eighteen inches long and six inches in 
diameter at the base, and made in the form of a cone, and the iron must be 
punched full of small holes, as in the engraving. In case a bin is a long, 
one, the ventilators ought to be about four feet apart. 

VENTILATORS— Improvement in. —Let a hole be sawed through the 
floor in the bottom of the bin, about one foot square or more, and nail 
a piece of fine wire cloth over the hole. This will admit the air and hold, 
the grain, and is as good as the sheet-iron ventilator. 



Fig. 186. Sheet- 
Iron Ventilator 
for grain bins. 


MECHANICAL. 


155 


VENTILATORS— For Indian corn-cribs. —Unless Indian com is very 
ripe and dry when it is husked and put in the crib, and unless the crib is 
quite narrow and airy, Indian com in the ear is very liable to be damaged 
more or less by heating; and when the cribs are made over the hog sty or 
piggery, the corn is apt to be very much damaged by the aqueous vapor 
which rises from the pen beneath the corn, and which keeps it damp. 
Many good farmers contend that it is not at all practicable to keep Indian 
corn well in cribs over a piggery; but it can be done, as my own experience 
has fully proved. 

The accompanying figure represents a ventilator that I was accustomed 

to use in my cribs when I was engaged 
in farming operations, which was placed 
lengthwise of the crib over a long opening 
in the floor. It hardly needs any descrip¬ 
tion. The end pieces are about six inches 
ijsT o~o~Q ~ o o OQO J wide, three feet long, bored full of two- 

Fig. 187. Ventilator for Indian Com inch holes > and slats four f eet long and 
in the Crib. three inches wide are nailed to them. As 

soon as the crib is filled to the top of the ventilator, another one is placed 
on the top of it; in this way ventilators are added as the crib is filled with 
ears. The ventilators are not fastened to the floor, as the ears of com will 
keep them in place. 

All the vapor from the piggery below, as well as from the middle of the 
crib, will rise through these flues, and pass off into the atmosphere beneath 
the eaves of the building. 

WAGON OR WHEEL JACK.—For greasing wagons and oiling car¬ 
riages, a simple contrivance, which one person can apply in a moment with¬ 
out difficulty, is needed. Many forms of construction have been adopted 
and recommended, but we have found nothing better 
than the one figured in the accompanying engraving. It 
is made of a strip of plank, two and a half or three feet 
high, and five or six inches wide, set upright on a shorter 
and rather wider piece, morticed in and braced. A slit 
or wheel jack, an inch and a half wide is sawed part way down, and a 
cross piece is spiked on at the top to make the two parts firm. The lever 
works in this slit on an iron pin or rod. A small chain is secured by a 
staple near the base of the upright, and a hook attached to the handle end 
of the lever. To use it, place the short arm of the lever under the axle 
near the wheel, then while bearing down with the right hand on the lever, 
hook the chain (held in the left hand) at any suitable link to the hook, and 
the wheel is then suspended from the ground. The whole is done in a 



Fig. 188, 











































156 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


moment, without moving a step. Several holes should be made in the 
upright (not shown in cut) to adjust it to different heights. 

WALL AND BOARD FENCE.—In many localities it is desirable and 
convenient to build a fence, the lower portion of which is stone and the 

upper of boards. We do not know of one 
that possesses so many advantages as the 
one shown herewith. The posts, B B B> 
are made from plank two inches thick and 
one foot wide, and of any length to suit 
Fig. 190. the height of the fence. The portion above 

the wall is tapering, as shown in fig. 190. R is a board six inches wide, the 
lower edge of which is nailed on the post, two and a half feet from the 
ground. A is a board four inches wide, and placed eight inches from the 
lower one. 



Directions for building a fence: First, set the posts B in the ground ; 
two feet will be about the depth; nail on the boards, or the upper one at 
least, when you are ready for laying up the wall. The nearness of the 
posts to each other and the width will enable you to use a great many 
round or cobble stones in its construction, with a certainty of their re¬ 
maining. 

VELOCITY OF WATER IN TILE DRAINS.—An acre of land, in a 
wet time, contains about 1,000 spare hogsheads of water. An underdrain 
will carry off from a stip of land about two rods wide, and one eighty rods 
long will drain an acre. The following table will show the size of the tile 
required to drain an acre in two days time (the longest admissible,) at 
different rates of descent; or the size for any larger area: 


Diameter 


Rate of 

Velocity 
of current 

Hogsheads 
discharged 
in 24 hours. 

of Bore. 


Descent. 

per second. 

2 inches. 

1 

foot in 100. 

22 inches. 

400 

2 inches. 

1 

foot in 50. 

32 inches. 

560 

2 inches. 

1 

foot in 20. 

51 inches. 

900 

2 inches. 

1 

foot in 10. 

73 inches. 

1290 

3 inches. 

1 

foot in 100. 

27 inches. 

1170 

3 inches. 

1 

foot in 50. 

38 inches. 

1640 

3 inches. 

1 

foot in 20. 

67 inches. 

3100 

3 inches. 

1 

foot in 10. 

84 inches. 

3600 

4 inches. 

1 

foot in 100. 

32 inches. 

2500 

4 inches. 

1 

foot in 50. 

45 inches. 

35 °° 

4 inches. 

1 

foot in 20. 

72 inches. 

5600 

4 inches. 

1 

foot in 10. 

100 inches. 

7800 


A deduction of one-third to one-half must be made for the roughness of 
the tile or imperfection in laying. The drains must be of some length to 














MECHANICAL. 15/ 

give the water velocity, and these numbers do not, therefore, apply to very 
short drains. 

WATER— Suggestions about conducting. —It frequently happens 
that it would be very convenient to carry water, in a conductor-pipe or 
trough, from a well, across the highway to a watering trough, or to a mor- 
tar-bed, six or eight rods distant from the well. There are two ways in 
which conductors may be arranged to carry it very conveniently. 

One way is, to set up four posts around the well and make a platform 
on the top of them, four, six, or twelve feet high, and set the pump on the 
top. Then the water can easily be carried ten rods, or more, distant from 
the well, in small open troughs or conductors, made by nailing two boards 
together like an eave-trough. The conductor may be supported by small 
posts set in the ground, and may be out of the reach of cattle. 

Another way is to set the pump on the platform, a few inches higher 
than the trough where the water will be received, and conduct it in water¬ 
tight pipe from the top of the platform down to the ground, and then, 
just below the surface of the ground to the place where it is to be dis¬ 
charged, when the pipe may be turned up so that the discharging end will 
be almost as high as the pump. 

If the pump should be a forcing and lifting pump, one end of a pit¬ 
man may be attached to the handle of the pump and the other end to a 
handle in a post, near the ground; then the pump could be worked without 
ascending the platform. 

But if the pump is a chain pump, a small pulley with a groove in the 
periphery, may be put on the journal where the crank is, and a correspond¬ 
ing pulley on a journal set in a frame on the ground. Then a small chain 
belt which may be obtained at most hardware stores for a few cents per 
foot, -will drive the reel of the pump. 

A wooden faucet, or metallic one, such as are used in molasses barrels, 
may be inserted in the side of the pump-pipe or penstock, from which 
water may be drawn while the operator is standing on the ground. Such 
an arrangement of water fixtures will cost but little, and will sometimes 
save a great amount of labor. 

WATER— Bringing up hill.— A correspondent has used a machine 
for two years to bring water eight rods up hill, without a cost of ten cents 
for repairs. A post at each end supports the wire, which is-about the size 
of telegraph wire. At the spring it is fastened six or eight inches above 
the water. It is strained tight. A plank wheel with a groove is turned by 

a crank about eleven inches long. Two 
common door pulleys are attached to 
the ends of a piece of iron (weighing 

Fig. 191. Bringing Water up Hill, about two pounds,) bent like a semi- 






158 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


circle, the ends holding the vessel bending over one side, so that it will 
hang on the wire by the wheels. The pail or bucket is of tin, with parallel 
sides, the ears one-third down ; one side slightly loaded, so that the bot¬ 
tom will not strike the water flat, or it will lift the pulley from the wire. A 
small copper wire, attached to the bucket, runs parallel with the other wire, 
and passes in the same direction through the upper post, where it winds on 
the wheel. If the large wire is stretched well, the posts may be fifty feet 
apart. The supports are turned up at the ends, and are flattened about 
the size of the wire, with a notch to lay the wire in. The last post and 
brace should be eight or ten feet from the spring, and with a steeper 
inclination. 

WATER UP A SLOPE— Pumping. —Below is an inquiry published some 
weeks since, to which we have been favored with the following answer: 

?^ Can I bring water six or eight rods by a suction 
pump, if the pump stands on ground six feet 
above the surface of water in the well or spring ? 
Would it be better and cheaper than to build a 
cistern ? 

Answer .—Lay the pipe in the direction of A 



Fig 192. 


B C D, fig. 192, or in any other direction touching A C D. C being lower 
than A, water will not flow back to it. Lay before frost. A. Spring—D. 
Pump—Dotted line, Level. 

WEDGES— Rebounding. —Many of our readers cut and split large 
wood in winter. When the logs are icy, some of them are annoyed by the 
wedges rebounding or flying back. Ashes dropped in will usually prevent 
it, but ashes are not commonly at hand in the woods. Take a piece of dry 
bark and set it in the opening, then set in the wedge anew, so as to split 
this bark, and it will prevent any further trouble. 

WIND-MILLS.—The force of wind may be usefully applied by almost 
every farmer, as it is a universal agent, possessing in this 
respect great advantages over water-power, of which very 
few farms enjoy the privilege. 

Wind may be applied to various purposes, such as saw¬ 
ing wood by the aid of a circular saw, turning grindstones, 
and particularly in pumping water. One of the best con¬ 
trivances for pumping is represented by fig. 193, where A 
is the circular wind-mill, with a number of sails set ob¬ 



Fig. 19 3—a, vi 

mill ; b, vane 
pump-rod. 


it by means of the vane B. The crank of the wind-mill, 
during its revolutions, works the pump-rod, /, and raises 
the water from the well beneath. In whatever direction the wind may 















MECHANICAL. 


159 

blow, the pump will continue working. The pump-rod, to work steadily, 
must be immediately under the iron rod on which the vane turns. If the 
diameter of the wind-mill is four feet, it will set the mill in motion even 
with a light breeze, and with a brisk wind will perform the labor of a man. 
Such a machine will pump the 
water needed by a large herd 
of cattle, and it may be placed 
on the top of a bam, with a 
covering, to which may be 
given the architectural effect 
of a tower or cupola, as shown 
in the annexed figure 194. 

A more compact machine, 
but of more complex construction, is shown in fig. 

195, where the upper circle moves round with the wheel and vane on the 
fixed lower circle, to which it is strongly secured so as to admit of turning 
freely. In other respects it is similar to the preceding. 

In all wind-mills it is important that the sails should have the right 
degree of inclination to the direction of the wind. If they were to remain 
motionless, the angle would be different from that in practice. They should 
more nearly face the wind; and as the ends of the sails sweep round 
through a greater distance and faster, they should present a flatter surface 
than the parts nearer the centre. The sails should, therefore, have a twist 
given them, so that the parts nearer the centre may form an angle of about 
sixty-eight degrees with the wind, the middle about seventy-two degrees, 
and the tips about eighty-three degrees. 

WINDOWS should always slide easily, and without rattling. Glass is 
often broken by attempting to raise those which move with difficulty; and 
no one admires the cold currents and music of those which are constantly 
rattling. A little time employed occasionally in making them right is an 
economical expenditure. 

WOOD CARRIER.—The following is a description of a frame or bar- 
row for conveying wood by hand from the wood-house to the fire. It does 
away with the necessity of piling the sticks on the arm, one by one, and 
then carrying them into the house, the wood being placed at once upon the 
frame, where it is not lifted until the frame is filled 
(fig. 196.) When wood has been dusted or covered 
with snow, it is easily knocked off by striking two 
sticks together before placing upon the frame. It is 
Fig. 169. Wood-Carrier, made in a manner quite similar to the common saw- 
buck, the sides being not quite so wide apart, and longer above the round 




















i6o 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


that holds them together. It consists of four strips of hard-wood, one inch 
thick, four inches wide, and four feet long—crossed eighteen inches from 
the lower ends, nailed and clenched with wrought nails. An auger hole, 
an inch and a fourth in diameter, is bored through at the crossings and a 
round connecting rod, fifteen inches long, inserted. 

WIND-MILLS— Force of. —The force exerted by wind mills will vary 
greatly with the velocity of the wind. The following table shows the pres¬ 
sure against a fixed surface; from the velocity given in this table, the average 
velocity of the sails must be deducted, and the remainder will show the real 
force exerted: 


Description. 
Hardly perceptible. 


Miles an 

Pressure 
in lbs. on 

hour. 

square ft. 

I 

.005 

2 

.020 

3 

.045 

4 

.080 

5 

.125 

6 

.l8o 

7 

• 3 2 ° 

10 

. 5°0 

*5 

1.125 

20 

2.000 

2 5 

3-125 

30 

4.50° 

35 

6.125 

40 

8.000 

45 

10.125 

5 ° 

12.500 

60 

18.000 

80 

32.000 

100 

50.000 


| Just perceptible, 
j Light breeze. 

| Gentle, pleasant wind. 
| Pleasant, brisk wind. 

| Very brisk. 


and 


| Very high. 

Storm or tempest. 

Great storm. 

Hurricane. 

Tornado tearing up trees 
sweeping off buildings. 

WOOD JACK—A convenient. —One of the best plans for a jack for 
holding fire-wood, when splitting it into suitable billets for the cook-stove, 
is shown by the annexed engraving which represents a 
section of a hollow log, about ten or twelve inches 
long, secured to a piece of thick plank by means of 
four wooden pins passing through the plank into, or 
outside of the hollow piece of log. Almost every 
Fig. 197. 'Wood Split- farmer meets with hollow trees that are so exceedingly 
ting Jack. tough and hard to split into firewood, that pieces of 

them are good for no other purpose; and they will last a long time, as the 
grain of the timber appears to be almost doubled and twisted together. 
Sometimes, if the grain of the wood is straight, so that one blow with the 




MECHANICAL. 


i6r 

ax will open the log, a billet of hard wood should be pinned on the upper 
end, to receive a part of the blow of the ax, whenever it passes through a 
billet of fire-wood more easily than the laborer anticipated. 

CROWS AND SKUNKS—To destroy. —Take one dozen hen’s eggs 
and break a small hole in either end, and with a small stick insert a small 
quantity of strychnine, then place them about a cornfield, and you will have 
a dozen or more dead crows in the morning. The same remedy will answer 
for skunks by placing the egg in the hole. Be careful not to lay it where 
anything else will take it. 

WOOL TABLE.—A correspondent furnishes the following description 
of a wool table which he has used several years with satisfaction. It con¬ 
sists of four boards, six feet long and one foot wide, with the exception of 
the board for the bot¬ 
tom of the box, which 
is ten inches. This is 
large enough for Me¬ 
rino fleeces weighing 
four to six pounds; Fig. 199. 

twelve inches would be sufficient for the largest coarse-wooled fleece. These 
are laid on two pieces of three by five scantling, three feet ten inches long* 
and the first, a , and third one, b, (fig. 198, the bottom of the box,) are 
nailed; the other two boards, c , c , are fastened to b with hinges ; d is a piece 
of board nailed at the end of b to bring the sides of the box (c, c,) together, 
which are held there by catches. It is supported by four legs, which are 
movable, and when stored away occupies but little space. The twine is 
passed up through the bottom of the box near d (fig. 199,) and across the 
bottom in grooves, so that the wool will not disturb them, and fastened by 
drawing them down in notches made with the saw. The dotted lines show 
the grooves. 

In using, the fleece is laid on in the usual way, and the sides rolled 
together; then the sides of the box are raised and held by the catches* 
( forming a box;) the fleece is then rolled so as to leave the shoulder exposed 
to view, and tied; the catches are then raised, and the sides of the box 
dropped, leaving the fleece at liberty on top of the table. The advantages of 
this table over those commonly used with a box at the side, are, the box at 
the side is in the way when rolling the fleece ; it saves the trouble of work¬ 
ing the fleece in and out of the box, besides often tearing it, and is much 
easier to construct, and less expensive. 

WORK-SHOPS AND STORMY DAYS.—Every farmer who has boys 
should provide them a work-shop. It may be a building erected on pur¬ 
pose, or else partitioned off from the carriage-house, corn-house, or other 

10 




Fig. 198. 











brand’s cyclopedia. 


162 

out-building. Let it be neatly made, and not unpleasantly situated, for it 
should be attractive and not repulsive to those for whom it is intended. 
It should be tight, and furnished with a small stove, so as to be comforta¬ 
ble in winter. It should be provided with a work-bench and vice, a shav¬ 
ing-horse for using the drawing-knife, and perhaps a small foot-lathe. The 
two latter are convenient but not essential. The tools should be two or 
three planes, augers of different sizes, a few chisels, a brace-bit, drawing- 
knife, saw and hammer. A small part of these will answer, and others may 
be added—the cost of the tools varying from five to twenty-five dollars. 

Such a work-shop will afford several important advantages. The great¬ 
est is the assistance it will render the cause of practical education. The 
best inheritance any man can leave his children, is, not wealth to support 
them, but the ability to help and care for themselves. A young man whose 
natural ingenuity is so developed by practice that he can at any moment 
repair a rake, adjust a scythe, fit in a new hoe-handle, get a clock in run¬ 
ning order, sew a broken harness, make a door-latch fasten easily, set a 
gate in good swinging condition, sharpen a pen-knife, give edge to a pair 
of scissors, mend an umbrella, repair a cistern-pump, whitewash a ceiling, 
paper a room, stop a leaky roof, make a bee-hive, bottom a chair, and 
black his own boots, will pass through the world more comfortably to him¬ 
self, and profitably to those around him, and be far more worthy of the 
hand of the finest young woman in the country, than the idle and sluggish 
pretended gentleman, with pockets full of cash earned by his father, and 
who is obliged to send for a mechanic for all these things, which he is too 
helpless to perform himself. Dr. Franklin said, “ if you want a good ser¬ 
vant, serve yourselfand, “ if you wish your business done, go; if not, 
send and these sayings apply with especial appropriateness to such as 
have those jobs to perform, commonly known as “ odds and ends.” 

Another important advantage afforded by such a work-shop is its moral 
influence in furnishing pleasant employment to boys during rainy or stormy 
weather, or other leisure hours, and lessening the temptation to frequent 
taverns, and to attend places of diversion—often leading to the most per¬ 
nicious habits. 

Another, is the actual saving of expense to the farmer, in having around 
him ingenious boys, who will repair immediately any broken article, and 
save the cost of carrying it to the neighboring village, and the delay and 
inconvenience, often much greater, of waiting till it is mended. They will 
be able also to manufacture many of the simpler wooden implements 
required for farm use. 

To keep every part of a farm and premises in the best and neatest order, 
cannot be accomplished unless the owner or his sons are of ready and 


MECHANICAL. 


163 

active hands. Those who depend on hired men to perform the innumera¬ 
ble little services which this condition of a farm requires, will find that 
these services must be connected with an amount of constant observation 
and thought which cannot be secured by simply paying wages. It is 
therefore essential to educate the young managers to use their own hands, 
and become habituated to hand-work and thinking together; and the 
various operation, connected with the work-shop will be found a most 
important auxiliary in accomplishing this very desirable result. 


Household economy. 


BASKETS should never have any wet substances placed in them, such 
as apple parings, or anything that will wet and decay the splints, and spoil 
their appearance. 

BED-ROOMS.—To avoid giving discomfort to guests, every spare room 
should possess these essentials—a good-sized slat-bottomed bed-stead, fur¬ 
nished with a straw-bed and mattress over it (or feather bed if the weather is 
cold, or the guest prefers it,) over which a soft quilt is spread, then the clean 
sheets, bolster, pillows and more bedding than is really needful to be warm 
enough, as it is easy to lay off an extra quilt, but not always easy to ask for 
more; a wash-stand, large pitcher of soft water, wash-bowl, fine soap, slop- 
pail, two or more clean towels, two or three chairs, matches, pin-cushion and 
pins, brush and comb, looking-glass, and a few hooks for hanging gar¬ 
ments. No bed-room should be without a Bible. Window curtains are 
essential; muslin are prettiest with a frill or valance, gathered in over the top, 
over the main part of the curtain. A clothes-brush, a pitcher of drinking 
water and a tumbler are often acceptable. 

Cleanliness and ventilation are essential not only to the comfort, but to 
the life and health of the occupants. Beds, absorbing much of the insen¬ 
sible perspiration, need much airing and frequent change of their furniture 
A straw bed is probably most healthful, as the straw can be often renewed. 
Mattresses should be overspread with a quilt or “ comfortable,” not only to 
make the bed softer, but because it can be washed and preserves the mat¬ 
tresses. Sheets need very frequent changing. Feather beds need daily 
beating up, and much ventilation. Many of the most particular housekeep¬ 
ers, from ignorance of the insensible waste of the body, leave their beds in 
a state of apparent neatness, but of real filth and poison. More than two 
persons should not occupy the same room, on account of the exhaustion of 
the air. Children are often crowded together and greatly injured in this 
way. The effects become apparent in loss of appetite, paleness, etc., but 
the cause is seldom suspected. The windows of bed-rooms should be open 
as much in the day as practicable, and at night if agreeable. Do not sleep 
with the door closed tightly. 

Beds should be made higher at the head than at the foot. A hollow in 

i6$ 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


i 66 

the middle of a bed is a certain sign of a lazy chambermaid. A true lady- 
will always keep her own room as neat, or even neater than those rooms 
which are seen by company, and never leave it in a state which would 
require an apology for its appearance should it be suddenly entered. 

BOARDS—To give a beautiful appearance. —After washing them 
very nicely with soda and warm water, and a brush, wash them with a very 
large sponge and clean water. Both times observe to leave no spot 
untouched, and clean straight up and down, not crossing from board to 
board; then dry with clean cloths, rubbed hard up and down in the same 
way. The floors should not be often wetted, but very thoroughly when done; 
and once a week dry-rubbed with hot sand and a heavy brush, the right way 
of the boards. 

The sides of stairs, or passages on which are carpets or floor-cloths, 
should be washed with sponge instead of linen or flannel, and the edges 
will not be soiled. Different sponges should be kept for the above two 
uses; and those and the brushes should be well washed when done with, 
and kept in dry places. 

BOOTS.— Ripping, to prevent.— It is stated that pegged boots, if 
dressed with petroleum between the soles and the upper leather, will be 
prevented from ripping. 

BRASS—To clean. —Rub the tarnished or rusted brass, by means of a 
cloth or sponge, with diluted acid, such as the sulphuric, or even with 
strong vinegar. Afterwards wash it with hot water, to remove the acid, 
and finish with dry whiting. 

BRASS AND COPPER VESSELS—To clean. —They require to be 
well and often cleaned, both inside and out. Indeed, the thorough cleans¬ 
ing of all vessels in which victuals are cooked is not only desirable in point 
of neatness and show—for most servants make a display of them—but it 
is actually necessary, as regards the flavor and the wholesomeness of the 
food cooked in them, whether solid joints, or soups, ragouts, etc. And 
these remarks apply more fully to vessels made of copper or brass than to 
tin or iron ware, the canker which they contract being absolutely poison¬ 
ous. Brass and copper, whether cooking utensils, candlesticks, or other 
articles, are best cleaned with sweet oil and tripoli, or powdered bath 
brick, or rotten-stone A piece of flannel should be oiled, and then sprink¬ 
led with either of the above named powders and well rubbed over every 
part of the article, till every spot and soil is removed. They should then 
be polished with soft wash leather. The inner part of tinned vessels should 
be well cleaned with soap and water, and then thoroughly washed with 
clean warm water, and put away perfectly dry. A solution of oxalic acid 
in water gives brass a fine color; and vitriol and spirits of salts make brass 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 


167 

and copper very bright; but they soon tarnish, and therefore require more 
frequent cleaning. A strong lye of rock alum and water will also improve 
the appearance of brass. 

BRASS KETTLES—To clean. —Clean brass kettles, before using, with 
salt and vinegar, to avoid being poisoned by the verdigris 

BREAD— Stale, to make fresh. —Put a stale loaf into a closely-covered 
tin vessel; expose it for half an hour or longer to a heat not greater than 
that of boiling water; allow it to cool, when its freshness will be found 
restored. 

BRICK HEARTH—To black. —Mix black lead with soft soap and a 
little water; and then boil it; then lay it on with a brush ; or mix the lead 
with water only. 

BUTTONS— In washing. —Complaint is often made that wringers tear 
off buttons When you wring your clothes draw them through so that the 
buttons lie flat while passing through the rollers, so that there will be no 
strain upon them. 

CALICO—How to wash. —Some people have a contempt for calico. 
They are generally of the careless and slatternly sort. A woman who 
knows how to do up calico nicely will appreciate the clean, neat dress, how¬ 
ever cheap. If a calico dress is washed carelessly, starched stiffly, sunned 
a day or two, and half ironed, it is not a very comely sight But if quickly 
dried in the shade, very thinly and evenly starched and ironed on the wrong 
side , so that it will not shine, it will look like a new dress for a long time. 
Many pretty blue prints and cambrics fade when washed in the usual way. 
If they are washed the first time in strong salt and water, or water to which a 
little beef’s gall is added, the color will be set so that they will always be 
as handsome as at first, and can be washed ever after like other colored 
goods. Scald out all fruit stains, before washing, with boiling water. 

CALICO FURNITURE—To clean. —Shake off the loose dust, then 
lightly brush with a small long-haired furniture-brush; after which wipe it 
closely with clean flannels, and rub it with dry bread. If properly done, 
the curtains will look nearly as well as at first; and, if the color be not 
light, they will not require washing for years. Fold in large parcels, and 
put carefully by. While the furniture remains up, it should be preserved 
from the sun and air as much as possible, which injure delicate colors ; and 
the dust may be blown off with a bellows. 

By the above mode curtains may be kept clean, even to use with the 
linings newly dipped. 

CANDLES.—Candles are made of various materials, but the first opera¬ 
tion, in all cases, is the preparation of the wicks. The best candle wicks 
are made of cotton rovings, imported from Turkey in skeins. Four or more 


i68 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


of these, according to the intended thickness of the wick, are wound on a 
reel, from which they are again run off, and cut of the proper lengths. 
They are then dipped into melted tallow, and after rubbing with the hands, 
are placed straight and allowed to harden. They are next arranged upon 
the broaches ready for dipping. For mould and other candles that do not 
undergo the process of dipping, this last operation is omitted. In some 
cases the wicks are formed by twisting or plaiting the cotton together, or 
winding it round wires, which are withdrawn after the candles are made, 
thus leaving the wicks hollow; this was the method patented by Gay Lus- 
sac, for his stearine candles. In some instances, the cotton is steeped in 
metallic solutions. The object in all these processes is to produce a wick 
that will consume itself, and thus prevent the necessity of snuffing. Great 
care is taken to select a cotton that will yield the least possible quantity of 
ashes, or non-volatile matter after burning. 

CARPET—To sweep. —Damp tea-leaves, scattered over a carpet before 
sweeping, improve the colors and give it a clean, fresh look. 

CARPETS— Sweeping. —The practice of sweeping carpets too often 
wears them out rapidly. It is apparent to every one that a brisk daily brush¬ 
ing over the whole surface must of necessity wear away and carry off more 
woolly particles than the occasional stepping of feet during the day without 
the rubbing and scraping given by the broom. To permit sand and grit to 
accumulate on the surface, and to become ground into the fiber by the pres¬ 
sure of sole-leather, is, however, worse than sweeping. Carpets should 
therefore always be kept clean. If men object to large carpet bills, then 
they should provide themselves with slippers, and not walk on them with 
muddy boots. It is a matter of economy to them to pay $i or $2 in the 
purchase of slippers, rather than a hundred or two for ingrain and Brussels. 
This perhaps would be a stronger consideration with some, and exert a more 
controlling influence, than frequent sharp reproofs from the mistress of the 
interior. 

There are different ways of sweeping carpets. The most objectionable 
is performed as follows: The operator first places the broom perpendicular 
upon the floor; then with a quick, thrusting motion the lower part is pushed 
forward and thrown upwards, carrying the dust with it in large clouds, until 
the air of the room is filled with it. The brush of the broom, by a frequent 
|||rF ^ use, thus becomes bent, somewhat in the 
form of a hook, as shown in the accom- 
gjp panying figure, 200, at the same time that 
Fig. 200. it is gradually broken off and worn out. 

The dust which fills the air gradually settles upon chairs, tables bureaus, 
writing desks, cases of books, picture-frames, clocks, maps, looking-glasses, 




HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 


I69 


etc. The process thus consists virtually 
in merely elevating a stratum of dust on 
the carpet and placing it on all these 
different articles of furniture. After some Fig. 201. 

minutes the duster passes around and the stratum is removed to its original 
position on the floor, thus making a sort of perpetual motion resembling the 
great circulation of moisture from the earth to clouds, and from clouds to 
rain back to earth again. 

A much better way for performing the work is to place the broom upon 
the carpet in an inclined position, with the handle inclining forwards; draw¬ 
ing it quickly over the surface in this position, and scarcely raising it from 
the floor, will prevent the rising of but very little dust. In order to do the 
work effectually, however, the motion should not be given by long strokes, 
but by a quick succession of short ones. It would be worth fifty dollars to 
any housekeeper who does not understand her business, to see these two 
modes distinctly performed. By the former or thrusting mode, the coarser 
dirt, or that which does not rise in the air, is shot ahead several feet, and 
spread over a large surface. By the latter or drawing mode, it is kept more 
compactly together, something like the winrow of hay in the meadow. The 
broom, instead of being bent around like a hook, as above stated, is kept 
straight and smooth, and lasts several times longer. Fig. 201. 

In libraries, cabinets, etc., where dust might badly injure or wholly spoil 
the specimens and books, it is better to procure a patent carpet-sweeper, 
merely using a broom or brush to clean out the corners and sides. 

CARPET—To put down. —The patent carpet-hooks, sold by the hard¬ 
ware merchants, are greatly superior to tacks, saving a great deal of pain¬ 
ful drudgery in putting down the carpet, and not requiring to be taken out 
and replaced every time the carpet is shaken. 

CHIMNEYS, on fire may be arrested in a great measure by throwing 
salt on the fire below, which partly extinguishes the flames; stopping the 
chimney at the top arrests the current and contributes to the same result. 
In case of a dwelling taking fire, every door and window should be kept 
closed, to keep the flames from spreading. 

CISTERNS— Worms and lice in. —A couple of live fish thrown into 
cisterns will clean them of worms, lice and dirt. 

CHARCOAL— Pulverized. —Is an excellent remedy for many pur¬ 
poses, and should be kept in every house. A glass jar with a wide mouth, 
and cork to fit it closely, is best to keep it in. A half-pint or so is large 
enough for most practical purposes. The coal should be freshly burned, 
and of such a character as to pulverize finely in a mortar, without leaving 
•grit. Most kinds of hard wood are too hard, and bass-wood and pine are 




brand’s cyclopedia. 


170 

too soft and dusty. We have never found anything equal to the “ white 
wood” of New England, or the Tulip tree. Perhaps soft maple would do. 
Take a stick large enough to make the desired coal, place it in the fire till 
it just ceases to blaze, and then pound or bray the red coals in a mortar-- 
which will, of course, immediately extinguish the fire. Place the powder 
in the jar or bottle, and keep it corked tight. It is excellent for indigestion,, 
or any derangement of the stomach—a rounded teaspoonful is a full dose, 
and should be mixed with several times its bulk of water, and swallowed. The 
powder is excellent to rub the teeth with daily. We once tried it on a six 
months calf that had become fearfully bloated from over-eating green food. 
Saleratus was first given, but it could not be swallowed. Half a teacup of 
charcoal in water was then administered without difficulty from a junk bot¬ 
tle, the head being held up. In six hours the animal was perfectly well. 
All agreed in the opinion that without this treatment it would certainly 
have died. 

CLOTHING.—If you have a small dress pattern, cut the three front 
breadths considerably shorter than the others. There is no economy in 
making the dress narrower than usual. A yoke waist generally requires 
less cloth than any other, as it uses up all the small pieces. 

Always shrink dress braids before using, by putting first in scalding, and 
afterwards in cold water. Even after shrinking, care must be taken not to 
pucker the dress in binding it, but put the braid on “ full.” 

To support the weight of the skirt, wear an under-waist of bleached 
muslin, with five large buttons sewed at intervals near the lower edge. The 
waist should be rather low in the neck. Button holes should be worked 
in the skirt-binding to correspond with the buttons. Persons who have 
worn this garment several years pronounce it indispensable. 

The wrinkles in a cloth cloak or other cloth garments are removed by 
hanging it in a warm place. 

When the nails in the shoes project upwards and become troublesome, 
they should be pounded down and the shoes be fitted with a pair of kid 
insoles, pasted in with a strong paste. 

To preserve the smoothness and beauty of a muff, always carry it so 
that the ends of the fur point outward from the person. 

A strip of the glazed fabric known as argentine, is neater, lighter, and 
more durable than the oiled-silk, commonly used for lining bonnets. 

COFFEE-POT—How to choose.— The coffee-pot that is broadest at 
the bottom and narrowest at the top will always make the best coffee. 

COTTON IN LINEN—To detect.— The presence of cotton in linen 
fabrics may easily be ascertained by immersing for two or three minutes a 
small strip (a square inch for instance) of the suspected cloth in a mixture 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 


i;i 

of equal parts of hydrate of potassa and water, when strongly boiling, 
after which it must be taken out and pressed between the folds of blotting 
paper. By separating eight or ten threads in each direction, their color 
may be readily seen. The dark yellow threads are linen, the white or 
bright yellow ones are cotton. A vessel of silver, porcelain, or hard glass, 
must be employed to contain the alkali. This process is simple and certain. 

DISH-WATER AND SOAP-SUDS, instead of being appropriated to 
the formation of an interesting puddle at the kitchen door, should be 
poured at the roots of young trees, raspberry and currant bushes, and will 
accelerate their growth and augment the size of the fruit. 

DISHES— Washing. —Those who have cool water, and little of even 
that, dirty dish-cloths and wiping towels, a greasy dish-pan, and a shirking, 
slovenly and unsystematic way of doing, will generally dislike to wash their 
dishes as much as other persons will dislike to use them. 

Provide plenty of hot water beforehand, and make up a good fire. Have 
a good supply of clean crash dish-towels. Scrape the dishes very clean, 
put the kettles to soak, put away the food remaining after the meal, and 
begin by washing the glass in clear hot water. There is no need at all of 
breaking tumblers in washing. Put them in the water side-wise, so that the 
water will run into them at once and expand them outside and inside at the 
same time—then they cannot crack. Wipe glass while hot, with a dry 
towel. After this put soft soap in the water, and provide rinsing water. 
Wash spoons before the crockery, while the water is clean—thus avoiding 
the risk of losing them among larger articles and throwing them out with 
the turbid dish-water. Change the water occasionally while washing dishes, 
and it will be neater—cleaner for the dishes and better for the hands. 
Knife-handles never should be put in water; they should be washed with a 
cloth above it, only dipping the blades. As the hands of working-women 
get accustomed to heat, so that they do not feel uncomfortable in water hot 
enough to dissolve the cement which fastens the handles af cutlery, it is 
best never to risk them in water at all. But India-rubber handles are con¬ 
sidered safe, even in very hot water. 

The outside of kettles should be washed as much as the inside. Scrape 
iron-ware with a circular piece of tin, bent up a little on one side to hold 
by; the medical instrument called “ spatula,” a broad knife, is equally valu¬ 
able for this purpose, as also for cleaning plates, as it scrapes a much larger 
space at once than a common table knife. 

DUST-PAN.—When you want a dust-pan, have it made to order, with 
the handle turning down instead of up, so as to rest on the 
floor and tip the dust-pan at a proper angle for receiving 
the dust. It is a great convenience, as you then do not have 
porting^bust-pan. to stoop and hold it while sweeping. 




172 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


DOOR KNOBS.—To secure the paint around them in cleaning, place a 
piece of pasteboard with a hole cut to encircle them, and a slit to slip on. 

EGGS—How to color.— If mottoes are to be inscribed upon the eggs, 
use the sharpened end of a white wax or adamantine candle. Having first 
submerged the eggs in hot water, write on them with the candle-end such 
words or draw such figures as you fancy. The wax or oil will serve the 
same purpose as what is termed a resist in the process of printing calicoes, 
and prevent the dye from adhering. 

Now we shall like our eggs of various colors—red, to begin with. For 
the purpose Brazil-wood and also cochineal are used, either dye to be set 
with a little alum. Boil by preference in a tin vessel. Have your dye¬ 
stuffs well dissolved and strained from impurities before immersing the eggs, 
and then if you keep them stirring all the while they will be painted over 
evenly. If you want speckled eggs, dot about with white wax or oil, as you 
did for your mottoes, and the desired effect will be produced. A neater way, 
though, of engraving eggs is to dye them first whatever color you wish, and 
then with a pen-knife scrape upon them any device that occurs to you, leav¬ 
ing thus a tracery of white upon a colored ground. Logwood chips will 
produce a dark purple dye, to be set with a small bit of copperas. A good 
yellow may be gotten by boiling in onion skins steeped in hot water, or by 
taking two parts of black-oak bark and one part of hickory, and boiling in 
water, with a lump of alum for the mordant. Or, if you wish some eggs 
yellow and some green, first dye your eggs in a pan of hot water colored 
with tumeric tied up in a little muslin bag, and when you have dyed as many 
in that as you may wish, stir into it enough of druggist’s blue-indigo com¬ 
position to produce the desired shade of green. The analine colors yield 
the finest results with the least amount of labor. So strong are these colors, 
that some of them do not even require to be heated, but are soluble either 
in water or alcohol, and impart their brilliant hues when applied cold. 

FADING— Colors, to prevent.— Dip new calico, pocket handker¬ 
chiefs, etc., in salt water. 

FLAT IRONS.—If rough and smoky, will not stick to a starched sur¬ 
face, if rubbed over a flat surface of salt laid on a board or table. 

FLANNEL— Washing.— To prevent flannels from shrinking and turn¬ 
ing yellow, wash them in hot suds, and rinse in clear, soft, boiling water— 
standing till cool enough to wring out. 

FLOOR-CLOTHS—To clean.— Sweep, then wipe them with a flannel; 
and when all dust and spots are removed, rub with a waxed flannel, and 
then with a clean one ; use but little wax, and rub only enough to give a 
little smoothness. Washing now and then with milk, after the above 
sweeping and dry-rubbing, makes them look fresh. An oil-cloth should 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 


173 

never be scrubbed with a brush; but, after being first swept, it should be 
cleaned by washing with a large soft cloth and luke-warm water. On no 
account use soap, or take water that is hot; as either of them will bring 
off the paint. 

FRAGMENTS OF BREAD, may be all saved by making them into 
toast and puddings, and they also make excellent pancakes, by soaking 
over night in milk, and then adding an egg or two and a little salt and 
flour. 

FRICTION MATCHES.—Should never be left where mice can get 
them—they have sometimes carried them in among their nests of shavings 
and papers, and slight causes have set them on fire and burned houses. A 
lady was nearly burned to death by a fire from a match which bad been 
thrown on the floor, and which she fired by treading on it. 

FREEZING PUMPS.—Pumps exposed to freezing are now usually made 
with contrivances to let off the water—one mode being to make a small 
hole in the pipe a few feet below the exposed part, so that the water will 
always run off before freezing. This hole may be stopped at other times 
of the year. Another way, which may be adopted for any pump, 
is to place a small nail or carpet-tack under the leather of the fixed valve, 
which will cause it to leak and let off the water. It is well where pumps 
are liable to freeze to keep a small lead pipe or other tube, with a funnel 
always on hand. Place this tube on the ice in the pump, and pour in hot 
water at the top. The tube carries the hot water directly on the ice, and it 
melts with great rapidity—a foot or more a minute—ten times faster than 
in any other way. 

GILT FRAMES, if cleaned are soon worn and spoiled—to prevent 
which, preserve them by applying a transparent wash. 

GLASS—How to wash. —If you do not want to break glass goblets, 
preserve dishes, etc., when you wash them, lay them sidewise in the hot water, 
and turn them over a few times; they will not break, even in boiling water, 
because all the parts will be expanded equally and at once. To break 
them it is only necessary to stand them up in the dish-pan and pour on hot 
water. 

HAIR BRUSHES, are best cleaned by washing them in saleratus or 
soda water, which removes all the oily coating. 

HANDS—To keep clean and smooth. —Procure a piece of pumice 
stone at the drug store, and grind one side smooth on a grindstone. When 
the hands are rough and dirty, wash them in soap suds, and rub them 
with the smooth side of the pumice stone. Keep the pumice stone wet 
when using it, as it will be more effective when it is wet than when it is dry. 

INKS— Black. — a . Bruised Aleppo galls, six ounces; soft water, six pints; 


i/4 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


boil together; add four ounces of sulphate of iron and four ounces of gum 
arabic. Put the whole of it in a bottle, and keep it in a warm place, shak¬ 
ing it occasionally. In two months pour it off in glass bottles, and add to 
each pint a grain of corrosive sublimate or three or four drops of creosote. 

b. Galls, one ounce; gum, one-half ounce ; cloves, one-half drachm; sul¬ 
phate of iron, one-half ounce ; water, eight ounces. Digest with frequent 
shaking till it has sufficient color. A good durable ink, and will bear 
diluting. 

INK— Cheap and excellent.— Take half an ounce of extract of log¬ 
wood, ten grains of bi-chromate of potash, and disolve them in a quart of 
rain water, in a bottle kept uncorked. This is the whole process, and the 
cost will be about three cents a quart. But failure will result, unless the 
bottle is perfectly clean, and unless the ink is poured out into an inkstand 
perfectly clean from any other ink. Do not forget also to leave the bottle 
uncorked. Do not mistake chromate for bi-chromate of potash. Running 
the logwood in solution first through a fine strainer, is said to be effectual 
in preventing the sediment which sometimes adheres to the pen, but this 
the writer has not tried. 

INK— Gold.— Honey and gold leaf equal parts; grind together upon 
a painter’s porphyry-slab with a muller, until the gold is reduced to the 
finest possible state of division, and the mass becomes perfectly homogene¬ 
ous, when it must be agitated with twenty or thirty times its weight of hot 
water, and then allowed to settle and the water poured off; this process 
must be repeated with fresh water two or three times, when the gold must 
be dried and then mixed up with a little weak gum-water for use. The 
brilliancy of writing performed with this ink is considerable, and may be 
increased by burnishing. Gold ink may also be made by mixing precipi¬ 
tated gold-powder with a little gum-water. 

INK— Indelible. —This may be made much cheaper than purchased, 
as follows: Two drachms of nitrate of silver, added to four drachms of a 
weak solution of tincture of galls. Another: Nitrate of silver one drachm, 
mixed with a solution of half an ounce of gum arabic in half a pint of pure 
rain water. Moisten the cloth previously with a strong solution of pearl, 
or salt of tartar, and iron it dry. 

INK SPOTS may be removed from linen by dropping melted tallow 
on them, and then washing. 

HINGES— Creaking. —Doors hung on butt hinges often make an 
unpleasant noise by creaking. The best way to prevent it is to place a 
drop or two of kereosene, by means of a feather, on the top of the bolt 
connecting the two parts, as well as at the sides, working the door back¬ 
ward and forward at the same time. The oil will run down and the diffi¬ 
culty will cease. 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 


175 


HORSE-RADISH—To have in keeping. —Grate a sufficient quantity 
during the season, while it is green, put it in bottles, fill up with strong vin¬ 
egar, cork them tight, and set them in a cool place. 

KITCHEN ODORS.—Meat which has been slightly tainted may be 
restored to perfect sweetness, and the odor arising from it while boiling 
entirely prevented by throwing into the pot a few pieces of charcoal con¬ 
tained in a small bag. The odor of vegetables slightly affected may be 
prevented in the same way. Red pepper, and even black pepper, produces 
a similar but less perfect result. 

KNIVES - Cleaning. —A small, clean potato, with the end cut off, is a 
very convenient medium of applying brick dust to knives, keeping it about 
the right moisture, while the piece of potato assists in removing stains from 
the surface. A better polish by this method can be obtained than by any 
other. 

LAMP CAIMNEYS—To prevent cracking. —Place the chimneys in a 
pan and boil them. This seasons them, and they will last twice as long. 

LAMP WICKS.—When the wick is too large for the lamp, pull out a 
few threads and it will go in. 

LEATHER—To clean. —Mix well together one pound of French yel¬ 
low ochre and a dessert-spoonful of sweet oil; then take one pound of pipe- 
day and a quarter of a pound of starch. Mix with boiling water, and, when 
cold, lay it on the leather; when dry rub and brush it well. 

LEATHER—To make waterproof. —Mix three parts of lard and one 
of resin or black lead and apply it. Boots or- shoes when treated with it 
will soon after take the usual polish when’blackened, and the soles may be 
saturated with it without danger of soiling the floor, as it does not rub off. 
This is an excellent recipe. 

LEATHER—To restore softness to. —To restore the softness and 
pliancy of leather, which has become hard by having been wet, apply neat’s- 
foot oil and rub it in. Castor oil is a good substitute for neat’s-foot oil for 
softening leather-belts, boots and harness. But the best oil for harness is 
one quart neat’s-foot oil, four ounces beefs tallow, and three table-spoonfuls 
lampblack; add four ounces beeswax for use in summer weather. 

GLOSS ON LINEN.—To restore the gloss commonly observed on newly 
purchased collars and shirt bosoms, add a spoonful of gum-arabic water to 
a pint of the starch as usually made for this purpose. Two ounces of clean 
gum-arabic may be dissolved in a pint of water, and after standing over 
night, may be racked off and kept in a bottle ready for use. 

LYE—To make. —Have a large tub or cask and bore a hole on one side 
for a tap, near the bottom; place several bricks near the hole and cover 
them with straw. Fill the barrel with strong wood ashes. Oak ashes are 


176 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


strongest, and those of apple tree wood make the whitest soap. Pour on 
boiling water until it begins to run, then put in the tap and let it soak. li¬ 
the ashes settle down as they are wet, fill it until full. 

MARBLE FIREPLACES AND TABLES.—Never wash them with 
soap-suds—the potash of the soap decomposes the carbonate of lime, and 
in time destroys the polish. 

MARKING CLOTHING.—Mark and number all clothing, bed-linen, 
towels, etc. Count up frequently silver, knives and forks, and all articles 
of value or m common use. 

MEAT—To protect from fly. —An effectual way of excluding the fly 
is by using a wire meat-safe, or by covering the joints with a loose gauze or 
some thin cloth, and hanging them from the ceiling of an airy room. Pep¬ 
per and ginger should be sprinkled on the parts likely to be attacked by the 
fly, but should be washed off before the joint is put to the fire. 

MILK—To test the richness of.— Procure a long glass vessel— a 
cologne bottle or long vial. Take a narrow strip of paper, just the length 
from the neck to the bottom of the vial, and mark it off with one hundred 
lines at equal distances; or, if more convenient, and to obtain greater ex¬ 
actness, into fifty lines, and count each as two, and paste it upon the vial, 
so as to divide its length into a hundred equal parts. Fill it to the highest 
mark with milk fresh from the cow, and allow it to stand in a perpendicular 
position twenty-four hours. The number of spaces occupied by the cream 
will give you its exact percentage in the milk, without any guess-work. 

MIRRORS— Spoiling. —It is a fact worth knowing, but which does not 
seem generally understood, that the amalgam of tin-foil with mercury, 
which is spread on glass plates to make looking-glasses, is very readily 
crystallized by actinic solar rays. A mirror hung where the sun can shine 
on it, is usually spoiled; it takes a granulated appearance familiar to house¬ 
keepers, though they may not be acquainted with its cause. In such a 
state the article is nearly worthless; the continuity of its surface is destroyed, 
and will not reflect outlines with any approach to precision. Care should 
therefore be exercised in hanging. If any of our readers have mirrors 
which seem to be spoiling, it would be well to ascertain whether the direct 
sunlight strikes them. If thus exposed, they can probably be saved from 
further injury by simply changing their position. The back as well as the 
front must be protected. A small glass hung in the window, where the 
rays strike it behind, is peculiarly exposed. The backs should always be 
covered where the beams are likely to touch it. 

The great danger to looking-glasses, however, is in transporting them. 
Very expensive ones have been seriously injured by careless handling, 
when merely carried across the street. The men who move furniture are 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 


1 77 


seldom fully aware of these possibilities and need to be cautioned and 
watched. Frequently a man or boy may be seen in the street carrying a 
mirror in such a way that the full glare of a noon-day sun strikes and 
injures it. Owners of such articles would, as a rule, be able to keep and use 
them much longer, if they would exercise more caution in this regard. To 
resilver a pier-glass often costs as much as one-fifth of the original price 
of the article; while the common glass is seldom worth resilvering. 

It is also well to avoid hanging a mirror near a stove or fire-place, where 
the heat radiated can reach it. If this precaution is neglected, granulation 
is likely to occur, even in a comparatively dark room, by the influence of 
warmth instead of light. A lamp or gas-jet, if placed too close while 
burning, though it may not crack the glass, will also often bring about the 
same injurious crystallization, and will even sometimes ceuse the amalgam 
to melt and run off. 

MOLASSES—To improve.— The flavor of common molasses is much 
improved by boiling and skimming it before using. 

MOTH—To protect cloth against.— Reimann, in his Faeberzeitung 
recommends for this purpose steeping the cloth for twelve hours in a solu¬ 
tion prepared in the following manner: Ten pounds of alum and twenty 
pounds sugar of lead are dissolved in warm water, the mixture being left 
undisturbed until the precipitate of lead sulphate is deposited. The clear 
liquor, now consisting of acetate of alumina, is then drawn off and mixed 
with one hundred and eighty gallons of water, in which a little isinglass has 
been dissolved. When well steeped, the goods are dried and finished by 
pressure or otherwise. 

NUTMEGS—How to select.— Prick them with a pin. If they are good, 
the oil will instantly spread around the puncture. 

OIL-CLOTHS—To keep looking well.— Wash them once a month in 
skim-milk and water, equal quantities of each. Rub them once in three 
months with boiled linseed oil. Put on a very little, rub it well in with a 
rag, and polish with a piece of old silk. Oil-cloths will last for years if kept 
in this way. 

PAPER HANGINGS—To clean.— Cut into eight half-quarters a loaf 
of bread two days old; it must neither be newer nor staler. With one of 
these pieces, after having blown off all the dust from the paper to be cleaned 
by means of a good pair of bellows, begin at the top of the room, holding 
the crust in the hand, and wiping lightly downward with the crumb, at about 
half a yard at each stroke, till the upper part of the hangings is completely 
cleaned all around. Then go again around, with the like sweeping stroke 
downward, always commencing each successive course a little higher than 
the upper stroke had extended, till the bottom is finished. This operation, 

II 


i7» 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


if carefully performed, will frequently make very old paper look almost equal 
to new. Great caution must be used not by any means to rub the paper 
hard, nor to attempt cleaning it the cross or horizontal way. The dirty part 
of the bread, too, must be each time cut away, and the pieces renewed as 
soon as at all necessary. 

PAPERED WALLS—To extract the grease from. —Dip a piece of 
flannel in spirits of wine, rub the greasy spots gently once or twice, and 
the grease will disappear. 

PEACHES—How to peel. —Take a kettle of very strong lye, and heat 
to boiling; take a wire cage—similar to a corn-popper—fill it with peaches 
and dip into the lye for a moment; then into cold water. With a coarse 
towel wipe each peach, and the rind will peel off smoothly; then drop into 
fresh cold water, and the operation is complete. You need have no fear of 
injuring the flavor of the peach. 

PICTURE-FRAMES—To re-touch. —To re-touch the rubbed parts of 
a picture frame, give the wood a coating of size made by dissolving isin¬ 
glass with a weak spirit. When nearly dry, lay on some gold leaf; and 
polish, when quite dry, with an agate burnisher, or any similar substance. 

PIE-PLATES AND PHIALS—To cleanse. —Bottles and phials that 
have had medicine in them may be cleansed by putting ashes into each 
one, and immersing them in a pot of cold water, then heating the water 
gradually until it boils. When they have boiled in it an hour, take it from 
the fire and let them remain in it until cold; then wash them in soap-suds, 
and rinse them in pure water till clean. Pie-plates that have been used 
much for baking are apt to impart an unpleasant taste to the pies, which is 
owing to the lard and butter of the crust soaking into them and becoming 
rancid. It may be removed by putting them in a brass kettle with ashes 
and cold water and boiling them in it for an hour. 

PLATES— Cleaning dinner. —Every dish-washer is familiar with the 
process of scraping adhered portions of gravy, etc., from the surface of the 
plates preparatory to washing. The rounded edge of a common table 
knife does the work imperfectly. Skillful houskeepers inform us that long, 
straight, flexible blades, like the spatula of druggists, perform this work 
more rapidly and perfectly. A task which has to be done three times a day, 
or more than a thousand times annually, should have every appliance for 
rendering it easy and perfect. 

PUTTY— Old, to remove. —Moisten it with muriatic acid, and it will 
immediately become soft. 

RAZOR STROP—To Renovate.— a . Rub a little clean tallow over the 
surface, and then put on it the light top part of the snuff of a candle ; rub 
it smooth. Excellent, b . Rub the strop well with a piece of soft pewter 
or lead. 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 


1/9 

RIBBONS AND SILKS—To preserve.— Ribbons and other silks 
should be put away for preservation in brown paper; the chloride of lime 
used in manufacturing white paper frequently produces discoloration. A 
white satin dress should be pinned in blue paper, with brown paper outside, 
sewn together at the edges. 

RING— Tight, how to remove.— Thread a needle flat in the eye with 
a strong thread, pass the head of the needle with care under the ring, and 
pull the thread through a few inches toward the hand; wrap the long end 
of the thread tightly around the finger regularly all down to the nail to 
reduce its size, then lay hold of the short end and unwind it. The thread 
repassing against the ring will gradually remove it from the finger. This 
never-failing method will remove the tightest ring without difficulty, how¬ 
ever much swollen the finger may be. 

REEL —Clothes line.— This is easily made, and is a great conven¬ 
ience. A strong box nailed to the end of a post or against the building, 
with a crank through it, is all that is required. Fasten gne end of the line 
to the crank in the box, and you can always have your line in good order 
when washing day comes. 

RUST FROM KNIVES, Etc.— To remove.— Cover the knives with sweet 
oil, well rubbed on, and after two days, take a lump of fresh lime and rub 
till all the rust disappears It forms a sort of soap with the oil, which 
carries off all the rust. 

RUGS, SHEEPSKINS OR MATS—To clean.— Make a very strong 
lather, by boiling soap in a little water; mix this with a sufficient quantity of 
water (rather more than luke-warm) to wash the mat or rug in, and rub 
boiled soap on those portions of it which require additional cleansing. 
When the mat has been well washed in this water, prepare another lather 
in the same way, in which a second washing must take place, followed by 
a third, which ought to be sufficient to cleanse it thoroughly. Rinse it well 
in cold water till all the soap is removed, and then put it in water in which 
a little blue has been mixed, sufficient to keep the wool of a good white, 
and prevent its inclining to yellow. After this it should be thoroughly 
wrung, shaken, and hung out in the open air, with the skin part towards 
sun, but not while it is scorching, otherwise the skin will become hard. It 
must also be shaken often while drying, for if not, it will be quite stiff and 
crackly. It should be frequently turned, being hung up first by one end 
and then by the other, until it has dried entirely. 

SASH WINDOWS—To keep up.— This is performed by means of a cork, 
in the simplest manner, and with scarcely any expense. Bore three or four 
holes in the sides of the sash, into which insert common bottle-corks, pro¬ 
jecting about the sixteenth part of an inch. These will press against the 


i8o 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


window frames along the groove, and by their elasticity support the sash at 
any height which may be required. 

SILK—To wash. —Spread it on a table, and then rub it with a sponge 
dipped in a mixture of equal parts of soft soap, brandy, and cane molasses. 
Rinse it thoroughly in three successive portions of water, and iron before 
quite dry. 

SHIRT BOSOMS AND COLLARS—To starch.— Pour a pint of boil¬ 
ing water upon two ounces of gum-arabic, cover it and let it stand over 
night; in the morning pour it carefully from the dregs into a clean bottle, 
cork it and keep it for use. A tablespoonful of this gum-arabic water, 
stirred into a pint of starch made in the usual manner, will give to lawns, 
either white or printed, a look of newness when nothing else can restore 
them after they have been washed. To every pint of starch add a piece of 
butter, lard, tallow or spermaceti candle the size of a chestnut. 

SHOE SOLES—To save.— It consists merely in melting together tallow 
and common resin, in the proportion of two parts of the former to one of 
the latter, and applying the preparation hot, to the soles of the boots or 
shoes—as much of it as the leather will absorb. 

SOOT IN CHIMNEYS, by taking fire, and dropping burning cinders on 
dry shingle roofs, causes many conflagrations. Most fires in the country 
originate in this way. Be particular to clean or burn out soot at least once 
a year, when the roof is wet. 

SHOES, Pegged, made of light or thin material, often have the soles 
crack off at the concave part before the shoes are half worn out. This is 
owing to the pegs becoming dry and shrinking. To prevent it, avoid thrust¬ 
ing them against stoves, or standing on hot-air registers; at the same time 
keep them somewhat moist, by occasionally walking on wet ground. If this 
is not a sufficient remedy, drive a few copper tacks_at the place of the pegs 
and clinch them inside. They may be bought at hardware stores, and kept 
for this use; a half dozen will do for each shoe. 

SOAPSUDS— Clearing. —It is generally known that a little dissolved 
alum is very effective in clearing muddy water; but recent experiments show 
its further virtues. In a place where water was scarce, a little alum was 
dissolved in hot water, and thrown into a tub of thick soapsuds. In a short 
time the soap curdled, and accompanied by the muddy particles, sank to 
the bottom, leaving the water above perfectly clear, pure, and devoid of 
smell. This water was found very useful for washing clothing, when poured 
off the sediment. A similar result was attained in a quick manner by filling 
a boiler with soapsuds, placing it on a fire, and throwing a bit of alum into 
it. When the suds boiled, the scum went over, and left the water clear 
soft, and as useful for washing clothes as it had originally been. 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 


1 8 1 


SPOON — Self-holder for a. —When temporarily filled with any 
liquid, or for dropping medicine, may be made in the simplest manner pos¬ 
sible, by thrusting the handle between the leaves of a shut book lying on 
the table. If not high enough, one book may be piled upon another. 
Both hands may then be used in dropping from a bottle or making any 
desired mixture. 

SHIRT-BOSOMS—To polish. —Put a little common white wax in your 
starch, say two ounces to the pound; then if you use any thin patent starch, 
be sure you use it warm, otherwise the wax will get cold and gritty, and 
spot your linen, giving it the appearance of being stained with grease. It 
is different with collar starch—it can be used quite cold; however, of that 
anon. Now, then, about polishing shirts: starch the fronts and wristbands 
as stiff as you can. Always starch twice, that is, starch and dry, then 
starch again. Iron your shirt in the usual way, making the linen nice and 
firm, but without any attempt at a good finish; don’t lift the plaits; your 
shirt is now ready for polishing, but you ought to have a board the same 
size as a common shirt board, made of hard wood, and covered with only 
one ply of plain cotton cloth. Put this board into the breast of your shirt, 
damp the front very lightly with a wet sponge, then take a polishing iron, 
which is flat and beveled a little at one end, polish gently with the beveled 
part, taking care not to drive the linen up into wave-like blisters; of course 
this requires a little practice, but if you are careful and persevere, in a short 
time you will be able to give that enamel-like finish which seems to be so 
much wanted. 

SHIRT-COLLARS—To dress. —For this purpose use the best starch, 
say two pounds, and four ounces of wax and six and a half pints of water; 
first dissolve the wax in the boiling water, take the vessel off the fire and 
allow it to stand for five minutes; during this time dissolve the starch in the 
smallest possible quantity of cold water, then pour it gradually into the 
vessel and boil for twenty-five minutes—keep stirring all the time; this 
starch can be used quite cold; rub it well into the collars, wring as tight as 
you can, finish by wringing in a cloth, then iron; thus you wall have them 
stiff without being hard, and when well dressed will have that beautiful 
elastic finish so much admired in new collars. 

SOAP— Labor-saving. —To make it, take two pounds of sal soda, two 
pounds of yellow bar-soap, ten quarts of water, or in like proportion. Cut 
the soap into thin slices, and boil altogether two hours, and then strain 
through a cloth into a tight box or tub ; let it cool and it is fit for use. Do 
not let it freeze. To use it, put the clothes in soak the night before you 
wash. The next morning put your water into your kettle or boiler. To 
every two pails of water, add about one pound of the soap. As soon as 


182 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


the water, with its dissolved soap begins to boil, wring out the clothes from 
the water in which they had been at soak during the night, and put them 
into the boiling water, without any rubbing. Let them boil one hour, then 
suds and rinse them, and they will be clean and white. They will need no 
rubbing, except a little on such places as are soiled, and for that no wash¬ 
board will be required. The clothes should be rinsed in two waters. 

Colored and woolen clothes must not be boiled as above, but may be 
washed in the suds weakened with water. The clothes will last longer by 
the use of this soap, and much labor will be saved. Six pounds of sal 
soda, six pounds of bar soap, and thirty quarts of water, will make about 
fifty pounds of the soap. The soda costs about eight cents a pound, and the 
bar soap eight cents a pound. A pint measure will hold a pound of the 
labor-saving soap. This will save the trouble of weighing every time. 

SOAP MAKING.—The best process of making soap is simply this: 
First, procure good ashes; place half a peck of caustic or water-slacked 
lime in the bottom of the leach, for each barrel of ashes; if air-slacked, 
the quantity must be larger, according to the time it has been exposed to 
the air. It is usual to place straw before the lime, to prevent the water 
from carrying it off in particles. Place the ashes on the lime, beating 
it compactly as each successive layer is applied, till the leach is full. If 
not beaten solid, the water will run through too soon, and the lye will be 
weak. 

A stout barrel, slightly inclined, with a hole bored through the bottom, 
makes a good leach. It should be placed on a piece of broad plank, with 
a gutter cut around it, to collect the lye, and high enough from the ground 
to set a tub under. The water poured upon the ashes should be hot, 
until the lie begins to run, and the time that should elapse after the water 
is first applied till it passes through as lye, should not be less than twenty- 
four hours ; if sooner, the ashes have not been beaten sufficiently and the 
lye will be too weak. It will continue to run as long as water is applied, 
but at the same time growing weaker, as the potash is carried off. 

If the ashes could be perfectly fresh, no lime would be required in the 
leach, as when first burned, ashes are caustic, but gradually lose this quality 
by absorbing carbonic acid from the air. The lime abstracts this carbonic 
acid and renders the lye again caustic. 

If lye is not strong enough to float an egg, it will not make good soap— 
but we have known it to do this, and still cause a failure, if not sufficiently 
caustic. The last named defect may generally be ascertained by pouring 
in a portion of some strong acid, as aquefortis or oil of vitriol, which will 
cause a violent effervescence—even strong vinegar will do. When this is 
the case, it shows that enough lime has not been used; and it may still do 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 183 

to apply it. We have known its use to cause success even after the mate¬ 
rials for the soap had been mixed together. 

The grease must be first foiled —then a pint of lye added—afterwards 
a quart of soap, and so on by gradual additions until the soap is made. A 
barrel of good ashes will make a barrel of soap, but if the lye is strong 
enough to combine well with the grease, the soap will be too strong, and 
injures the clothes. This is remedied by adding a pail of water to each 
pail of freshly made soap, or diluting it. 

STAINS— Iron.— These come from iron-rust, ink, etc. To remove 
them the iron is first dissolved by a solution of oxalic acid in water. The 
oxalate of iron thus produced, which, unlike iron rust, is soluble, is readily 
removed by washing or soaking. Ink spots (tanno-gallate of iron) upon 
the printed leaves of books, are removed in the same way—but the lamp¬ 
black of the printer’s ink is not at all affected. If fresh,, such spots may 
be wholly effaced; if old and dry, a very little will remain. Wheel grease 
makes a compound stain of grease and iron. The grease may be taken 
out first by alkali; then the iron by oxalic acid. If tar has been used on 
the wheel, rub on lard, which will dissolve it, and then apply the alkali. 
Turpentine will answer nearly the same purposes as lard. 

STAINS— Vegetable. —These include fruit stains,and maybe removed 
with clorine or sulphurous acid. A diluted solution of chlorine will remove 
them; or if practicable, chlorine in a gaseous state will be better, the place 
being wet. Sulphurous acid, or the strong fumes of burning sulphur, will 
effect the same purpose, but much more slowly, and perhaps more safely. 
Both these substances will, however, remove any other vegetable color 
which may have been used for dyeing the fabric. To remove stains from 
calico or other colored substances, without affecting the original hue, 
requires not only a knowledge of the materials used in dyeing, but of those 
which will dispel the stain without affecting these dyes, and would be too 
extended a subject for our present limits. 

STAINS— Removing.— Receipt books give an almost endless number 
of directions, without the reasons, in the form of a vast undigested mass of 
remedies. A knowledge of the substances, and the application of chemical 
principles, greatly simplifies the act, and renders intelligible and certain 
what before was only accomplished guess-work and endless trials. 

STAINS —Grease.— These are from grease, oil, etc., and are simply 
removed by alkalies or soap, or by essential oil dissolved in alcohol. Alka¬ 
lies, such as solutions of saleratus or liquid ammonia, will remove them 
safely from all substances without color. For other substances, the alco¬ 
holic solutions spoken of will do, and among them burning fluid answers a 
good purpose. But the best of all is the new preparation termed Benzine, 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


184 

which exceeds anything else we know of in efficiency. Lay a paper under 
the fabric and apply the liquid. Oil spots and stains from candle snuff, on 
woolen table covers, paint spots on garments, etc., are thus perfectly re¬ 
moved, without the slightest discoloration. 

STAINS— Acid. —These may generally be known by reddening black, 
brown and violet dyes, and all blue colors except Prussian blue and indigo. 
Yellow colors are generally rendered paler, except the color of annato, which 
becomes orange. These stains are neutralized by alkalies. A spot, for 
instance, on a woolen coat, from strong vinegar, or sulphuric acid, may be 
entirely removed by applying a solution of saleratus. Apply it cautiously 
until the acid is exactly neutralized, which may be known by the restora¬ 
tion of color; and then sponge off the salt thus made by means of a sponge. 
Ammonia is better for delicate fabrics 

STAINS —Sweat.— Are chiefly occasioned by a little muriate of soda 
and acetic acid—which produce nearly the same effects as acids generally, 
and are to be removed in the same way, operating cautiously. 

STAINS— Alkaline. —These are the opposite of acid stains—they 
change vegetable blues to green, red to violet, green to yellow, yellow to 
brown, and annato to red. They are to be treated with acids. The writer 
once had a new pair of dark cloth pantaloons changed to a light brown 
below the knees, by riding on a load of fresh lime in a storm. “ Oh ! you have 
ruined your clothes ! ” was the exclamation; but he deliberately procured a 
cup of vinegar, and sponging the cloth gradually, completely restored the 
color, and then again sponging off the compound, left them as good as 
before. 

STAIR CARPETS may be preserved a much longer time by placing 
strips of paper nearly as wide as the carpet and five or six inches broad 
over the edge of each stair, which prevents the wearing at that place. 

STARCH— Alum in.— For starching muslins, ginghams and calicoes, 
dissolve a piece of alum the size of a shellbark, for every pint of starch, 
and add to it. By so doing, colors will keep bright for a long time, which 
is very desirable when dresses must be often washed, and the cost is but a 
trifle. 

STARCHING— Clear.— This is practiced as follows: Rinse the arti¬ 
cles in three waters, dry them, and dip them in a thick starch, previously 
strained through muslin ; squeeze them, shake them gently, and again hang 
them up to dry; and when dry, dip them twice or thrice in clear water, 
squeeze them, spread them on a linen cloth, roll them up in it, and let 
them lie an hour before ironing them. Muslins will look well when starched 
and clapped dry, while the starch is hot, then folded in a damp cloth till 
they become quite damp before ironing them. If muslins are sprinkled 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 185 

they are apt to be spotted. Some ladies clap muslins, then dry them, and 
afterward sprinkle them. 

STOVES—To polish. —For a stove of medium size, pulverize a piece 
of alum the size of a large hickory-nut, stir into two table-spoonfuls of vin¬ 
egar, add this to the stove-blacking, mixed with water in the usual manner. 
Apply this mixture with a cloth or brush to a cold stove, and while wet rub 
briskly with a dry brush. The polish will appear at once. 

TEA-KETTLE—To prevent crust. —Put into the kettle a flat oyster- 
shell. It will attract the stony particles that are in the water to itself, and 
prevent their forming upon the kettle. 

TIN COVERS—To clean. —Boil rotten-stone and a small quantity of 
prepared whiting in sweet oil for two hours, until it acquires the consistency 
of cream. 

TINWARE—To clean. —The best thing for cleaning tinware is com¬ 
mon soda. Dampen a cloth and dip in soda, and rub the ware briskly, after 
which wipe dry. Any blackened or dirty ware can be made to look as well 
as new. 

TIN PANS—To mend. —Put putty on the outside; let it dry well, and 
the pan will never need mending in the same place again. 

TALLOW — To bleach AND harden.— In a copper boiler put one-half 
gallon water and one hundred pounds rendered tallow; melt over a slow 
Are, and add, while stirring, one pound of oil of vitriol, previously diluted 
with twelve of water; afterwards, half pound bichromate of potassa, in 
powder; and lastly, thirteen pints water, after which the fire is suffered to go 
down, when the tallow will collect on the surface of the dark green liquid, 
from which it is separated. It is then of a fine white, slightly greenish color, 
and possesses a considerable degree of hardness. 

TWINE WASTE should be neatly wound into a ball, and kept for future 
use, and not thrown into drawers in a tangled mass. This will save time 
when one is in a hurry, and imparts habits of neatness. 

VINEGAR — To prevent “ mother ” in. —Add a few drops of sulphuric 
acid to each gallon of vinegar, and it will thoroughly arrest further vegeta¬ 
tion of this kind. 

WALL PAPER may be thoroughly cleaned by rubbing it with dry Indian 
meal on a cloth. Pieces of bread are commonly used for this purpose, but 
the Indian meal is obviously cheaper and easier. 

WASHING FLUID.—We have lately tried a washing fluid which has 
proved very successful in extracting the dirt from cotton and linen, and the 
proportions are such that they cannot injure the clothes: Five pounds of 
sal-soda; one pound of borax; half a pound of fresh unslacked lime; four 
ounces salts of tartar; three ounces liquid ammonia. 


186 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Dissolve the soda and borax in one gallon of boiling water; when well 
mixed, pour in the liquid ammonia and salts of tartar. Boil the half pound 
of lime for five minutes in one gallon of water; set it aside to settle, and 
when clear pour it off carefully, not allowing any sediment to mingle with 
it. Pour the two gallons of solution together, and turn upon them eight 
gallons of cold water. Put into a cask or jugs. 

The night before washing, take six tablespoonfuls to a tub filled with 
clothes, mixing it with four pails of warm water. Soak them over night; 
next morning add hot water enough to wash the clothes with good soap¬ 
suds. Boil the clothes. Wash out another tub full of clothes in the same 
water used for the first boiler. 

One trial of this fluid will show its good effects. 

An excellent soft soap can be manufactured from this compound. Take 
one quart of the fluid; slice into it three pounds of yellow bar soap, and 
add to it two pounds of sal-soda. Boil it in three gallons of water for ten 
minutes, and it will make four gallons of soft soap which will prove un¬ 
equaled for all purposes wherein soap is needed. 

In using these receipts for washing, the clothes do not need to boil more 
than half an hour, and in many cases persons prefer to pour boiling water 
upon them, and let them stand until it is cool enough to wring out. By 
thus doing it is thought the clothes are whiter. 

These receipts have been sold through the country at high prices, and a 
good deal of money has been made from their manufacture. 

WASHING CLOTHES.—Never put off washing on account of rain; it 
may be no drier any other day of the week. 

A good washing machine will save much labor and wear of fabrics. The 
only requisite to complete success in working it is to use boiling water. A 
good wringer saves not only time and strength, but many dollars in the wear 
of clothing, which is always injured by the straining and twisting of wringing 
by hand. 

Don’t wash calicoes with soft soap, and never dry them out of doors; they 
will surely fade. Their colors may be set by washing once in soft water, in 
which beefs gall has been diluted in the proportion of one table-spoonful of 
gall to one gallon of water. 

Many thousands of dollars are wasted by the careless washing of flannels. 
The following receipt, furnished by an experienced housekeeper, will infalli¬ 
bly prevent them from shrinking: Make suds of hard soap and boiling water; 
lay in the flannels and leave them in it till the water is cool enough for the 
hands to bear. Then rub the flannels on a wash-board till clean; wring 
them out, and throw them into a tub of boiling water; let them lie till the 
water is cool enough for the hands, then rinse them in it thoroughly and 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 


187 

wnng them out. Repeat the rinsing process with another tuo of boiling 
water, then hang them up to dry. Never rub soap on flannels. Never 
wash colored and white together; hang the former in the shade, the latter 
in the sunshine. 

Do not use those clothes-pins that are made in the form of pincers, with 
a spring to shut the ends together. They hold too tightly, and cut holes in 
the clothes. 

A simple article, called the clothes sprinkler, has been found by long trial 
to dampen the clothes more evenly, and keep the hands, 
dry besides. It consists of a hollow tin cylinder, about 
four inches long and three in diameter, closed at both 
ends, but having one of them pierced like the rose of a 
watering-pot. A tube inserted in one side admits the 

il Flg o 20 ^'i 1 water into the cylinder, and forms a handle to hold while 

domes bpnnkler. .... _ 

sprinkling. After filling the sprinkler, cork up the tube 

and shake the water over the clothes. 

WASHING —Hints on.— The linen for Monday’s wash should be col¬ 
lected on Saturday, sorted and put to soak in cold water, according to the 
various kinds. The body linen should be put into one tub, the bed and 
table linen in another, and the fine things separately. Plain collars, cuffs* 
wristbands, should be strung through the button holes on a piece of bob¬ 
bin long enough to enable the articles to be easily divided for rubbing* 
starching, etc. Colored muslins, prints, and flannels must be laid aside to 
be washed in a different manner from white calico or linen. Properly 
boiled suds are far better than soap for washing, particularly if a washing, 
machine be employed. The suds should be prepared in the following 
manner: Shred into an earthenware jar the best yellow soap cut into very 
fine shavings, and pour boiling water to the quantity required. One pound 
of soap is plenty for one gallon of water. Add to this quantity half a 
pound of the best soda, and set the jar (covered) on a stove or at the 
back of the kitchen range till the soap is quite dissolved. If this be done 
on Saturday evening, the soap will be a smooth jelly fit to use on Monday 
morning. 

WASHING FLUID.—1. Take one pound of sal soda and half a 
pound of unslacked lime, put them into a gallon of water and boil twenty 
minutes; let it stand till cool, then drain off and put into a strong jar or 
jug ; soak your dirty clothes over night, or until they are wet through, then 
wring them out and rub on plenty of soap, and in one boiler of clothes* 
well covered with water, add one teacupful of washing fluid; boil half an 
hour briskly, and then wash them thoroughly through one suds, rinse, and 
your clothes will look better than the old way of washing twice before 
boiling. 










i88 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


2. Five pounds of sal soda, one pound of borax, one pound of unslacked 
lime. Dissolve the soda and borax in one gallon of boiling water; slack 
the lime in the same quantity ot boiling water; then pour them both into 
eight gallons of cold water ; stir a few times and let it stand till morning, 
when the clear fluid should be poured off into jars, ready for use. For 
two pails of water use half a pint of the compound. Soak your clothes 
over night, putting soap on the soiled parts. In the morning wring them 
out and put them on to boil, first putting some of the fluid and soap into 
the boiler. After boiling ten or twelve minutes, take them out into your 
machine or tub and the dirt will rub right off; then rinse well in two waters. 

3. One and one-quarter pounds of washing soda, \ pound borax, and 
dissolve in 4 quarts water by boiling. When the mixture is cold add about 
one half a teacupful of water of ammonia (hartshorn), and bottle for use, 
taking care to keep the fluid corked from the air. For use take a cupful 
to a pailful of water. 

4. Sal soda and borax, pound each; gum camphor, 1 ounce; alcohol, 
^ pint. Dissolve the soda and borax in one gallon of boiling rain water, 
pour in two gallons of cold rain water, add the camphor first dissolved in 
the alcohol, stir well and bottle for use. Four tablespoonsful of the pre¬ 
paration are to be mixed with a pint of soft soap, and the clothes boiled in 
a suds made of this. It is all the better if the clothes are soaked over night, 
before putting them into the suds. 

Soak your clothes over night in clear, cold water ; in the morning have 
over the fire what water is necessary to boil them in, add one tablespoonful 
of saleratus, one pint of soft soap, or one quarter of a bar of hard soap, 
wring or drain your clothes from the water in which they have stood over 
night, put them in your boiler, boil three quarters of an hour, when they 
will need but little rubbing, rinse, and your clothes wall be beautifully white. 

Your suds will be excellent for washing colored clothing of all kinds, as 
it does not injure the nicest prints. One pound of saleratus will do twenty 
washings for any common family. 

WATCH—To wind.— Turn the hole downward, and let the point of the 
key point upward. This will allow any little particles of metal or dust to 
drop out, and the watch will not need cleaning so often. 

WATER— Bad in new wells. —Water otherwise good, is sometimes 
made bad in new wells by dissolving impurities from the stones used to 
wall them. We knew a case of this kind, where in a few weeks the water 
became so foetid that no animal, however thirsty, would touch it. The 
cause was suspected and the well cleaned ; the second filling of water was 
much better; the process was repeated, and after the water was drawn out 
the third time it became perfectly good. It has since, for many years, been 
noted for its excellent water. 


HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 


189 


WEEKLY EXAMINATIONS.—See that beef and pork are under brine; 
count towels, sheets, spoons, etc.; examine preserves and see they do not 
become mouldy; mend all garments; see that vegetables in the cellar are 
not sprouting and becoming mouldy; count clothes-pins; stir Indian meal 
to prevent fermentation. 

WHITEWASHED WALLS—To prepare for painting. —If there 
should be any cracks in the plastering, and the wash be sound around the 
cracks, plaster-of-paris is the best thing to fill them with, as it hardens 
quickly, does not shrink, and leaves the surface level with the wall. If the 
plaster-of-paris sets before it can be worked, wet it with vinegar. The 
stronger the acid the slower it will set. If cracks be filled with putty, and 
the wall be painted in gloss color, the streaks of putty are apt to flat (no 
gloss,) and if painted in flat color, the streaks are quite sure to have a gloss. 
These streaks, of course, will spoil the beauty of the work, but do not 
affect its durability. When filled with plaster-of-paris the reversion of gloss 
never appears, if done as directed below. If the cracks be only in the 
wash, the latter is loosening from the wall; and if it has not begun to scale, 
it soon will, and all attempts to fasten it on and paint will be total loss. If 
it be loose enough to scrape off, scrape the wall, taking care not to gouge 
into the original wall. If not loose enough, let it alone until it is. If the 
wash be thin, solid, and even, it can be painted to look and wear well. 
When the surface is lumpy, rub the lumps off with sand-stone, or a brick. 
After a wall has been prepared, as in either of the above cases, or if a wall 
that has never been washed is to be painted, size it with two coats of glue 
size (three ounces of glue to one gallon of water.) Be sure the glue is all 
dissolved before using any of it. Let the first coat dry before the second 
coat is put on. 

WINDS— Cold, avoiding. —Those who have to ride in cold winds in 
winter, and who do not happen to have sufficient clothing at the time, may 
protect the lungs or chest by placing a doubled newspaper in front, and 
then buttoning the coat over it. It will be found to have a remarkable pro¬ 
tecting power against the cold. Those who do not happen to have suffi¬ 
cient bedding, and who take some one of the great blankets called fashion¬ 
able newspapers, may protect themselves on very cold nights, by spreading 
one or more between the quilts. Travelers should take a few with them for 
this purpose. 

WORKING DRESS.—It is desirable while performing domestic labor to 
adopt such a style of dress as will be convenient to work in, without being so 
peculiar as to attract attention. A plain calico dress, made somewhat shorter 
for parlor wear, but long enough to reach at least the tops of the shoes, is 
most convenient in all respects. But a large apron, made with high neck, 


190 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


full waist, belt, long sleeves and long, full skirt, is exceedingly valuable to 
slip over a nice new dress when doing housework, washing supper-dishes, 
etc. It should be made quite loose, and of a material that will wash. Fasten 
up your dress-skirt with a “ page,” put on the apron, and you may go to 
work without danger of spoiling your clothes. 


Curing and Storing. 


APPLES— Keeping. —S. S. Boyd, of Jacksonburgh, Indiana, states that 
he has found apples to decay in keeping, more from being kept too close 
and warm, than from all other causes put together. He has succeeded 
remarkably with a cellar where the air circulates freely, and is so cool that 
potatoes cannot be kept there. Close or confined air we have long since 
found to be detrimental, and we have therefore adopted the plan of sus¬ 
pending the apple shelves in the middle of the cellar, so that one can pass 
round on every side, which is the most convenient; and so as to admit a 
free circulation of air, which cannot take place when the shelves are in 
contact with the damp walls. Iron rods are best for supporting them, and 
if sufficient space is allowed, rats and mice cannot reach them. 

BACON—How to keep.— We give the following different modes for 
keeping hams, either of which may be employed according to circum¬ 
stances, or the facilities possessed or at hand: 

i st. Mix equal parts of slacked lime and wood ashes; spread three inches 
of the mixture on the bottom of a box, then a layer of bacon; cover with 
lime and ashes, lay a few laths on, then a layer of bacon, and continue until 
the boxes are full. Set in a dry, cool place. All ashes answer if no lime is 
near by. For a few pieces for a family, cover each piece of bacon or 
ham with paper, and pack in a salt barrel, with ashes between each piece, 
and fill the barrel up with ashes. The meat will be as good at the end of the 
year as when put in. 

2d. Do not pack it down in anything, but take each piece and hang it 
in a loose bag, stuff the bag tight with cut hay, and your hams will keep 
sound and fresh for an indefinite time. 

3d. Pack your hams, shoulders and dried beef in barrels, and cover them 
with powdered charcoal, and the meat will keep sweet and will not be 
touched by flies, mice or rats. 

4th. Malt screenings will keep bacon better than bran. 

5th. Nice sweet timothy hay, cut fine, is the best thing extant for pack¬ 
ing bacon, as it imparts a pleasant aromatic taste to the meat. Bran will 
sour and spoil the bacon. 

191 


192 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


BEEF— Keeping fresh. —Combe says the ribs will keep longest, or five 
or six days in summer, the middle of the loins next, the rump next, the 
round next, and the brisket the worst, which will not keep longer than 
three days in summer. 

BEEF, CORNED—How to. —Add two pounds brown sugar to eight 
gallons water, also one quart molasses, four ounces of nitre, and fine salt 
till it will float an egg. This is enough for two quarters of beef. 

BEEF— Curing. —By most of the modes now in use, the beef becomes 
too much impregnated with salt, and is not as a consequence so fine for 
eating. By the following process this difficulty is prevented, and the beef 
will keep till the following summer: To 8 gallons of water add 2 pounds 
of brown sugar, 1 quart of molasses, 4 ounces of nitre, and fine salt till it 
will float an egg. This is enough for two common quarters of beef. It 
has been repeatedly tried and found very fine ; a famous beef eater says it 
is the only good way. 

BIRDS—To preserve. —Birds may be preserved in a fresh state for 
some time by removing the intestines, wiping the inside out quite dry with 
a towel, and then flouring them. A piece of blotting paper, on which one 
or two drops of creosote have been placed, is now to be put inside them, 
and a similarly prepared piece of paper tied round them. They should 
then be hung up in a cool place, and will be found to keep much longer 
than without undergoing this process. 

CABBAGES— Preserving. —There are several good ways of keeping 
cabbages during the winter by burying them out of doors. The difficulty 
is, it is hard to get at them during winter, without damage to those left. The 
following plan appears to avoid this difficulty: Cut the head from the stump, 
and pack closely in a cask, taking care to fill up all the vacancies with chaff 
or bran, and keep in a dry cellar. 

CHERRIES— Dried. —Take the stems and stones from ripe cherries; 
spread them on flat dishes, and dry them in the hot sun or warm oven; 
pour whatever juice may have run from them, a little at a time, over them; 
stir them about, that they may dry evenly. When they are perfectly dry, 
line boxes or jars with white paper, and pack them close in layers; strew a 
little brown sugar, and fold the paper over, and keep them in a dry place; 
or put them in muslin bags, and hang them in an airy place. 

CIDER—How TO KEEP sweet. —Use only sound apples. Make the 
cider when the weather is almost cold enough to freeze the apples. Expose 
the cider during freezing weather, and stir it until the whole of it is reduced 
as near the freezing point as possible without freezing. Then barrel it, bung 
up tight, and place it in a cellar kept nearly down to the freezing point. As 
long as you can keep it cold enough it will not ferment, and as long as it 
does not ferment it will remain sweet. 


CURING AND STORING. 


193 - 

CLOTHES-PINS—To preserve.— Clothes-pins boiled a few moments 
and quickly dried, once or twice a month, become more flexible and dura¬ 
ble. Clothes-lines will last longer and keep in better order if occasionally 
treated in the same way. 

COFFEE—How to grind.— A London paper says that the Germans 
have lately found that it is not economical to use coffee ground so 
coarse as is common ; if ground fine, one-half the quantity will make 
equally good coffee; and if pounded in a mortar till reduced to an impal¬ 
pable powder like flour, as practiced in Turkey and other Eastern countries, 
still less, only two-fifths, is needed. Further experiments went to show 
that the result was the same whether the beverage be prepared by simply 
pouring boiling water over the coffee and letting it stand a time short to 
draw like tea, or if the infusion be allowed to boil up once or twice, or 
the coffee simply filtrated. But it was abundantly proved that by the last- 
named mode of proceeding, though the strength of the coffee remained 
the same, the aroma was preserved to a much greater extent than by either 
of the other methods. 

On the other hand, the Food Journal , which is unexceptional authority 
in all culinary matters, says that if coffee be ground very fine, there is a 
decided loss of aroma in the infusion. It commends the coffee prepared 
by the French Coffee Company for the coarseness of the grinding. 

If the coffee is kept for any length of time after being ground, we are 1 
inclined to think that this latter view is correct; but if ground at home 
just before being used, we should rather side with the Germans. 

CORN —Canning.— Shave the corn from the cob, fill tin cans as full as 
you can with corn, then pour in cold water until even full, make a small 
hole in the cover and solder on the cover, place the cans in a boiler with 
cold water about half the height of the can, place the boiler on the stove, 
let them boil four hours, then remove them from the boiler, and drop a 
little solder on the hole in the cover. Corn canned in this way at the end 
of the year will be as white and tender as when picked. 

CORN, GREEN— Preserving for winter use.— Cut the com off the 
cob, and put it in a stone jar, with a handful of salt to a pint of corn. When 
the jar is full, put a weight on it. When you wish to use it, remove a little 
of the top, and wash and soak over night. 

BUTTER— Tainted, restoring. —Cut or break the butter into grains 
or very small pieces, by passing it through a.coarse sive or otherwise. Put 
it into the churn with a sufficient quantity of new milk to float it and churn 
it well, which will free it from the bad taste, when it may be taken out 
and worked and salted, as new butter. 

CRANBERRIES—To keep.— Cranberries will keep all winter in a firkin 
of water in a cellar. 


12 


194 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


CUCUMBER PICKLES.—Cut the cucumbers from the vine by means 
of scissors or a knife, so as not to tear the end, as would be the case if 
merely plucked by hand. Wash them in cold water, and then lay them in 
the bottom of a barrel or jar, into which a layer of salt has been previously 
deposited, so that when successive layers of cucumbers and salt are made, 
the former will be imbedded in salt, the moisture which covers them tend¬ 
ing to dissolve the salt and convert it to brine. They may remain a long 
time in this condition—many keep them thus until sold in market. To finish 
the pickling process, take a quantity of good vinegar, but not too sharp or 
it will destroy the texture of the cucumbers, and give it the flavor of spices, 
by placing equal quantities of cloves, red and black pepper, in a bag so as 
to give about half a teacupful of this mixture to a gallon of vinegar, both 
to be boiled together. Then, having previously removed the pickles from 
the salt, and soaked them about eight or nine days in fresh water, changing 
the water each day; pour the hot vinegar, spices, pepper, bag and all, over 
the cucumbers, and in two weeks they will be ready for use. Some who 
make very sharp pickles pour off the first vinegar, and make a second addi¬ 
tion, keeping the first liquor for the next batch. 

Another recipe is as follows: 

Cut the cucumbers from the vines, wash them in cold water, and place 
them in an earthem jar. Put salt enough to make a strong brine into boil¬ 
ing water and pour on them; repeat three successive mornings, and on the 
fourth cover them with cold vinegar, adding a small quantity of mustard 
seed to prevent moulding. They will keep the whole year. 

CURRANTS— Drying and preserving in bunches. —Beat well up the 
whites of eggs, or a little gum-arabic dissolved in water; and, after dipping 
in the bunches, and letting them get a little dry, roll them in finely-pow¬ 
dered loaf-sugar. Lay them on a sieve in a stove to dry, and keep turning 
them and adding sugar till they become perfectly dried. Not only red, 
white and black currants, but even grapes in bunches maybe thus dried and 
preserved. They should be carefully kept dry, in boxes neatly lined with 
paper. 

CURRANT JELLY.—The following method of making currant jelly, 
which we have practiced for more than twenty years, will be found to save 
trouble, and afford a good article. For straining the jelly two pieces of 
board, shaped to form handles on one end, and hinged together with leath¬ 
er at the opposite end, form a good squeezer, saving the hands from burn¬ 
ing. Put the currants (with the stems on) in stone jars and cover them. 
No leaves must be put in, for they are bitter. Set the jars in warm, but 
not hot, water over the fire. When the water boils, and the currants are 
warm and somewhat sunk in the jars, strain through a linen or flannel bag. 


CURING AND STORING. 



195 

To every pint of juice allow one pound of loaf sugar. The sugar is not 
to be cooked at all. Put it in a clean milk pail. Put the juice into a brass 
or porcelain kettle; boil it about five minutes (not longer;) pour it boil¬ 
ing hot upon the sugar, and stir it till all the sugar is dissolved. Then put 
it in bowls, glasses or jelly moulds. Paste on white paper covers. It will 
be thick in a few days. 

DRYING HOUSE— Fruit.— Several portable fruit drying houses have 
been patented and constructed, one of which is represented in the annexed 
engraving The others are made on the same 
principles, and are similar in form. They are 
.about three feet square and four feet high, but 
may vary according to convenience. The fruit 
when the fire is made, is covered with sheet iron 
jto prevent danger from taking fire. The fruit is 
Splaced on shelves, and is thoroughly dried in a 
few hours, whether the weather be rainy or not. 
They are easily moved to any part of the orchard. 
Any one can make a portable house for this pur- 
Fig. 204. pose, by making a small, light board house, fur¬ 

nished with sliding sieves as shelves, a ventilator at the top, a small stove 
with pipe passing around near the bottom, and double doors for access. 

EGGS— Pickled.— The jar to be of moderate size—wide-mouthed 
earthem jar, sufficient to hold one dozen eggs; let the latter be boiled quite 
hard; when fully done, place the same, after taking them up, in a pan of 
cold water. Remove the shells from them and deposit them carefully in 
the jar. Have on the fire a quart or more of good white wine vinegar, into 
which put one ounce of raw ginger, two or three blades of sweet mace, one 
ounce of allspice, half an ounce of whole black pepper and salt, half an 
ounce of mustard seed, with four cloves of garlic. When it has simmered 
down, take it up and pour the contents into the jar, taking care to observe 
that the eggs are wholly covered. When quite cold, stopper it down for 
use. It will be ready after a month. When cut into quarters, they serve as 
a garnish, and afford a nice relish to cold meat of any kind. 

EGGS—To keep.— a. Parties in the egg business in a large way build 
brick vats made water-tight, in which is lime-water, which is made by put¬ 
ting lime in water, and when it is slacked and settled to the bottom drawing 
off the liquor. Into this liquor the eggs are placed and kept beneath the 
surface. They are kept as cool as possible. These are the limed eggs with 
which the markets are supplied during winter. 

b. Another mode of keeping eggs, tested by the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment, is as follows: Rub the eggs with flaxseed (linseed) oil, and place them, 








brand’s cyclopedia. 


196 

small end downwards, in sand. Eggs so prepared were found at the end of 
six months to have the same taste and smell of perfectly fresh eggs, and to 
have lost in weight only three per cent. Greasing eggs with lard or tallow 
has not been successful in preserving them, except for short periods. 

c. Take a thin board of any convenient length and width and pierce it 
full of holes (each one and a half inches in diameter) as you can. A board 
two feet and six inches in length and one foot wide, has five dozen holes in 
in it, say twelve rows of five each. Then take four strips two inches broad, 
and nail them together edgewise into a rectangular frame of the same size 
as your other board. Nail this board upon a frame, and the work is done, 
unless you choose to nail a heading around the top. Put your eggs in this 
board as they come from the poultry house, the small ends down, and they 
will keep good for six months, if you take the following precautions: Take 
care that the eggs do not get wet, either in the nest or afterwards. Keep 
them in a cool room in summer, and out of the reach of frost in winter. If 
two boards be kept, one can be filling while the other is emptying. 

d. Eggs can easily be kept from October to March in the following man¬ 
ner: A piece of lime as large as a quart dipper, is put in five gallons of 
water, and salt added until an egg will float. This is strained and put into 
a clean keg, into which a loose head is made to fit easily; a knob is fitted 
to the head for a handle. The eggs are put, as they are gathered, into the 
liquid, and the loose head placed on them to keep them below the surface. 
The keg should be kept in a cool place in the cellar. The liquor will not 
freeze except at a lower temperature than freezing point. Eggs thus pre¬ 
served will sell readily as limed eggs until fresh eg gs come, and are almost 
as good as fresh ones. 

e. Take one quart of unslacked lime, pour to it water enough to make it 
the consistency of whitewash, add one teaspoon of cream tartar; let this 
be in a wooden or stone vessel, and put the eggs into it. 

/. Hang them by hooks in strong cabbage-nets, and every day hook 
them on a fresh mesh, so as thereby to turn the eggs. 

g. Apply with a brush a solution of gum arabic to the shells, or immerse 
the eggs therein, let them dry, and afterwards pack them in dry charcoal- 
dust. This prevents their being affected by alterations of temperature. 

h. Mix together in a tub, or vessel, one bushel Winchester measure of 
quick-lime, thirty-two ounces of salt, eight ounces of cream tartar, with as 
much water as will reduce the composition to a sufficient consistency to 
float an egg. Then put and keep the eggs therein, which will preserve 
them perfectly sound for two years at least. 

*• Eggs can be preserved by keeping them at a temperature of 40° or 
less in a refrigerator. Eggs have been tested when kept in this manner for 
two years, and found to be perfectly good. 


CURING AND STORING. 


IQ/ 


j. Dissolve three or four ounces of bees-wax in seven ounces of warm 
olive oil; put in this the tip of your finger and anoint the egg all over. 
Keep the eggs in a cool place, and they will keep fresh for five years. 

k. Keep your eggs buried in salt, or dip them in boiling water two or 
three times. The white portion of the egg by this dipping forms a kind of 
membrane, which envelops the interior and protects it from the air. 

/. Secure a good, sweet wooden box; place on the bottom of the box 
about one and a quarter inches of common salt; then take sweet grease of 
any kind, lard or drippings, rub the eggs all over with it, and place them, 
the small end down, in the salt; then place another layer of salt and add 
more eggs. 

m. Pack the eggs in a box of tallow, small end down. This is the Rus¬ 
sian way of keeping eggs, and they keep fresh for years. 

n. Rub the eggs carefully with mutton suet, or better, dip them in a bath 
made by melting suet in a pipkin. This stops the pores or perforations in 
the shell, and prevents the passage of the air. They should be afterwards 
wiped to remove the superfluous fat, which might become rancid. They 
should be then closely packed on end in a box of bran. 

FRUIT IN CANS— Preserving. —To one pound of the fruit, put a 
quarter of a pound of loaf sugar. Put them over the fire together. Let 
them boil up once. Then have your cans in a pail of water as hot as pos¬ 
sible without breaking them—have the cans also filled with water of the 
same warmth. Let them remain so a few moments. Then while the fruit 
and sugar are boiling hot, fill the cans while they are setting in the water. 
They must be filled to the very top. Then put the cover on, and seal with 
cement. After filling them, take them out of the pail of water, and put 
them away to cool. After they are cold turn them over on the other side, 
and let them remain so until you wish to use them. 

FRUIT— Dried, to keep worms from. —Place your fruit in a steamer 
over a pot of boiling water, covered tightly. When thoroughly heated, tie 
them immediately in a clean linen or cotton bag, and hang them up. This 
method is preferable to heating in an oven, as that is apt to render them 
hard, even if you are so fortunate as not to burn them. 

FRUITS— Keeping. —The following rules for keeping fruits are from the 
proceedings of the Royal Horticultural Society of England: 

l. As the flavor of fruit is so easily affected by heterogeneous odors, it 
is highly desirable that the apple and pear rooms should be distinct. 

2. The walls and the floor should be annually washed with a solution of 
quicklime. 

3. The room should be perfectly dry, kept at as uniform a temperature 
as practicable, and be well ventilated, but there should not be a thorough 
draught. 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


198 


4. The utmost care should be taken in gathering the fruit, which should 
be handled as little as possible. 

5. For present use, the fruit should be well ripened; but if for long keep¬ 
ing, it is better, especially with pears, that it should not have arrived at 
complete maturity. This point, however, requires considerable judgment. 


6. No imperfect fruit should be stored with that which is sound, and 


every more or less decayed specimen should be immediately removed. 

7. If placed on shelves, the fruit should not lie more than two deep, and 
no straw should be used. 

FRUIT DRYING.—One of the most complete fruit dryers is represented 


in the annexed engraving. It consists of a tall, upright shaft, 
a , b, represented in the section of the apparatus, through 
which passes an endless chain, made of a number of strong 
frames, securely hinged together at the corners. The chain 
should be a very strong one, as many times several hundred 
pounds will be on the shelves. The shelves should have nets 
or sieves thrown over them to keep off the flies. The engrav¬ 
ing is so plain that any one can easily make one. Heated 
air from a stove and drum is made to pass up through the 
shaft a, b , being let in at the sides b, and confined to the 
shaft by the drum e. It is a very simple machine, and one that 
if made and operated, will repay the party a hundred times. 



FRUIT —House to dry in. — In many sections of the 
country the fruit crop is an important item; much of this fruit 
cannot be sent to market, to profit, in its green state, and may 
be dried to good advantage, and find a ready sale at high 
prices. At the Shaker establishments, in Kentucky, they have a 
method of drying fruit that is both expeditious and verycom- 


Fig. 205.—Fruit 
Dryer. 


plete. It consists of a building of logs, brick or stone, of any convenient size— 
say 10 feet wide by 12 or 14 feet long; the walls 7 or 8 feet high,with an 
ordinary roof. Upon the top of this should be a ventilator, sufficiently large 
to admit of the escape of the vapor arising from the fruit. An opening may 
be left along under the eaves for ventilating, but it is better to have it on 
the top of the building. At one end of the house a furnace is built, open¬ 
ing on the outside. This is about two feet square. The sides are of brick, 
and only sufficiently thick to sustain the top. The flue extends the length 
of the building, and returns to the chimney near the furnace door. The 
top of the furnace or flue may be covered with any old plates of cast-iron, 
or sheets of boiler iron; thicker iron, or a covering of brick or stone, might 
not admit of the escape of sufficient heat to dry the fruit with facility. The 
fruit is dried on trays or hurdles, arranged in three tiers, one above another, 






CURING AND STORING. 


199 


with a space of twelve or fifteen inches between them. The hurdles are 
two feet or more wide, and six feet or more long, and three inches deep. 
These are simple trays made of pine boards, with bottoms made of small 
strips, or laths of hard wood. Through the length of the building, and 
extending six or eight feet outside, scantling are put up to support the three 
tiers of hurdles. A broad door is made at the end of the building to cor¬ 
respond with each tier of hurdles. Upon each pair of scantling a frame is 
made to correspond with the width, which runs out and into the building upon 
rollers, in the form of a railroad.- The frames are drawn out through the 
end of the building and the trays of fruit placed on them crosswise, and then 
run in. Thus arranged, with the three tiers of rails filled with trays of fruit, 
about one and a half or two barrels of fruit can be dried at once, requiring 
twenty-four hours to complete the process. The trays nearest the fire, of 
course, will dry the fastest, and with the convenience of the railroad and the 
shutters in the end of the building, they may be drawn out and changed to 
the upper rails, when the whole may be equally dried within the twenty-four 
hours in the most perfect and uniform manner, without the least burning. 
The fire is made on the bottom of the furnace, which consumes less fuel 
and keeps up a slow and more uniform heat than if placed above the draft. 

In some instances I have seen old steam boilers, of small size, used for 
the furnace and flues, and these, where they can be obtained cheap, answer 
every purpose; these radiate the heat readily, and a small amount of fire 
answers the purpose. 

There are many sections of the country where peaches and early apples 
cannot be readily sent to market, and as at this season of the year, when 
grass is abundant, they are of less value to feed swine, they may be dried in 
this way to good profit. In remote sections of the country fruit-growing 
may be made a source of considerable profit, in this way. The demand 
for dried fruit will always be greater than the supply. 

GiVME—To keep.— Newly ground coffee, sprinkled over game, will 
keep it sweet and fresh for several days. Clean the game; that is, wipe 
off the blood, cover the wounded parts with absorbent paper, wrap up the 
heads, and then sprinkle ground coffee over and amongst the feathers or 
fur, as the case may be; pack up carefully, and the game will be preserved 
fresh and sweet in the most unfavorable weather. Game sent open and 
loose, cannot of course, be treated in this manner; but all game packed in 
boxes or hampers may be deodorized as described. A tea-spoonful of 
coffee is enough for a brace of birds ; and in this proportion for more or 
for larger game. 

GOOSEBERRIES— Dried. —To seven pounds of red gooseberries add 
a pound and a half of powdered sugar, which must be stewed over them 


200 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


in the preserving-pan; let them remain at a good heat over a slow fire till 
they begin to break ; then remove them. Repeat this process for two or 
three days; then take the gooseberries from the syrup, and spread them 
•out on sieves near the fire to dry. This syrup may be used for other pre¬ 
serves. When the gooseberries are quite dry, store them in tin boxes or 
layers of paper. 

GRAPES— Keeping. —A new method of keeping grapes in winter has 
been adopted to some extent in France, consisting essentially in hanging up 
the bunches separately by the smaller end, on wire hooks. Small wires of 
sufficient stiffness, and a few inches in length, are bent into hooks in the 
shape of the letter S; one end is passed into the smaller end of the bunch, 
and the other placed upon a suspended hoop, as 
shown in fig. 206. The position of the bunches 
causes every berry to hang away from its neighbor, 
and consequently they are less liable to rot by con¬ 
tact, than any other arrangement. 

The hoops are suspended by three cords or wires to 
a button overhead, like the hook of a baby-jumper; 
and any convenient number of hoops may be hung 
successively under the first. The center of the fruit- 
room may thus be occupied; and the walls may be 
Fig. 206. covered by passing horizontal wires around the walls 

and about a foot from them, to receive the hoops for the suspension of the, 



bunches. 

This will be found much more perfect than the more common practice of 
keeping grapes upon shelves or in drawers. It is hardly requsite to remind 
those accustomed to the successful keeping of grapes, of the necessity of 
careful picking, the removal of imperfect or decayed berries, and of avoid- 
too much moisture in the fruit-room on the one hand, and of such a degree 
of dryness on the other as to cause wilting. The necessity of excluding 
frost is of course obvious. 

HAMS—To preserve from’ flies. —The skippers, as they are called, 
are the larvae of the meat fly. To prevent their attacks we have enveloped 
the hams and bacon in thick paper, wrapping carefully, so that the meat is 
completely covered. Then the meat is put into a cotton bag, which is 
sewn up closely. The fly can not penetrate both envelopes with its ovipo¬ 
sitor, and if no holes or small openings are left, the meat may be preserved 
from it. We have also packed the meat in wheat bran and oats, in boxes 
and barrels, and have been successful in saving it. But we favor the first 
mentioned plan. 

HAMS—To KEEP during summer.— Take an old flour barrel, or other, 







CURING AND STORING. 


201 


dry cask, and put a good layer of coarse salt in the bottom, and then put 
down a ham ; cover that with coarse salt and put down another ham, and 
so on till the cask is full, or all put in. Put the cask in a cool dry place; 
and the hams will all come out perfectly good, provided they went in good. 

HAMS— Keeping. —We have found it a good method in keeping hams 
and shoulders, to let them hang in the smoke-house, or a tight, dark room, 
and give a few hours smoking every week or ten days. This will keep out 
flies and bugs, and keep the meat free from damp and mould. 

HAMS— Curing without sugar. —A lady in Western New York, says 
in the Rural New Yorker , that she cures hams with simple salt and water 
(brine,) equal to any treated with sugar or molasses and salt. She is care¬ 
ful to place them in the cask shank downward, and while smoking has them 
on racks, with the rind down, instead of hanging in the usual way, “ thus 
both the pickle and the smoke retaining the juices of the meat.” Another 
correspondent thinks his recipe not only the cheapest but the very best in 
the world :—“ For every 16 pounds of ham take one pint of pure salt, and 
one ounce of saltpetre. Pack in a clean oak cask, sprinkling the salt 
between the layers of meat. Dissolve the saltpetre and pour it over the 
whole, adding sufficient pure water to cover. Soft water is best. Let them 
lie under the brine six weeks, then smoke. 

HAMS—To cure. —The committee on bacon hams of the second 
annual exhibition of the Frederick (Maryland) County Agricultural Society 
awarded the first premium to Mrs. George M. Potts, and the second to 
W. H. Lease, Esq., and observed “ that the hams were remarkable for their 
excellent flavor, and were at the same time juicy and tender.” The fol¬ 
lowing are the recipes: 

Another recipe. —To each green ham of eighteen pounds, one dessert¬ 
spoonful of salt-petre; one-fourth pound of brown sugar applied to the 
fleshy side of the ham and about the hock. Cover the fleshy side with 
fine salt half an inch thick, and pack away in tubs, to remain from three 
to six weeks, according to size. Before smoking rub off any salt that may 
remain on the ham, and cover well with ground pepper, particularly about 
the bone and hock. Hang up and drain for two days; smoke with green 
wood for eight weeks, or until the rind assumes a light chestnut color. The 
pepper is an effectual preventive of the fly. I never bag hams. This 
recipe took the first premium. 

Another. —When the hams were cool he salted them down in a tight 
cask, putting a bushel of salt, well mixed with six ounces of saltpetre, to 
about one thousand pounds of pork; after it had been salted down four 
or five days, he made a strong brine, sufficient to float an egg, and cured 
the meat with it, and then let it remain five weeks longer, then hung it up, 


202 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


dusting the fresh sides with black pepper; then smoked with green wood. 

Another. —After cutting out the pork, rub the skin-side with about half 
a teaspoonful of saltpetre, well rubbed in. Rub the pieces all over with 
salt, leaving them well covered on the fleshy side. Then lay the hams in 
large, tight troughs, skin-side down. Continue this process until it is 
all salted down. Let them remain in the troughs without touching or 
troubling them for four or five weeks, according to the size of the hog* 
no matter how warm or changeable the weather is. Then take them 
out of the trough, and string them on white-oak splits; wash all the 
salt off with the brine, if sufficient; if not, with water; then rub them well 
and thoroughly with wood ashes. Let them hang up and remain twenty- 
four hours or two or three days before you make the smoke under them* 
which must be made of green chips, and not chunks. Make the smoke 
under them every day, and smoke them five or six weeks. After the smoke 
stops, let the hams remain hanging all the time. Shoulders cure in the same 
manner. Always kill your hogs in the morning, and let them remain from 
twenty-four to thirty-six hours before cutting them up. 

HAMS—To preserve. —Hams, after being well salted and smoked, 
may be preserved sweet a year by packing them down in oats. 

HERBS— Dried.— 'Herbs are dried by spreading them thinly on trays* 
and exposing them to the heat of the sun or a current of dry air, or by 
placing them in a stove-room, observing in either case to turn them repeat¬ 
edly. When dried in the sun, they should be covered with thin paper, to 
prevent their color being injured by the light. The quicker they are dried 
the better, as “ heating ” or “ fermentation ” will be thereby prevented. 
When sufficiently dried, they should be shaken in a coarse sieve, to remove 
any sand or the eggs of insects that may be mixed with them. Aromatic 
herbs should be dried very quickly, and by a gentle heat, that their odor 
may be preserved. Tops and leaves are dried in the same way as whole 
plants. In every case, discolored and rotten leaves and branches should 
be rejected, and earth and dirt should be screened off before proceeding to 
dry them. 

HEMLOCK BEER—To make for the sick.— Fill a very clean two 
gallon iron kettle with hemlock branches and cold water, and add two 
quarts of wheat bran; boil nearly an hour, strain and sweeten it with nearly 
a pound of sugar, add a teacup full of fresh yeast. As soon as fermentation 
commences, bottle it for future use. Tried, and found right. 

ICE—To keep. —A piece of ice may be kept during several days in the 
hottest weather, by putting it into a bag of woolen cloth, with double sides, 
between which a layer, two inches thick, of feathers has been quilted. 

IVORY KNIFE-HANDLES—To prevent from cracking. —Under 


CURING AND STORING. 


205 


no circumstances place them in hot water. The heat expands the steel, 
which makes its way up the handle a very little, and soon the ivory cracks. 
Knife-handles should not lie in water, as it soon spoils them. 

LARD— Cured with soda. —By following this recipe exactly you will 
have lard so white and sweet as to leave no cause for complaint for the 
most fastidious judges. During the whole process remember it is indis¬ 
pensable to work with slow heat. One even table-spoonful of supercar¬ 
bonate of soda to every five gallons of cut fat—that is to say, just as you 
cut it up to put on the fire, measure it, and to every five gallons put an 
even table-spoonful of soda in a pint of water, and dissolve it thoroughly; 
then pour it over the fat after it is put in the pot. Let it boil till it boils 
clear, which will not be for some hours if the heat is properly regulated; 
then take it off and strain it. We always let the lard stand a few minutes 
after it is taken off the fire before we strain it, or it is apt to unsolder the 
tin colander. It is best to strain it into an iron pot, and let it stand half an 
hour longer before it is put into tin or stone vessels. It requires a longer 
time to dry up lard with soda than without, yet its improved appearance 
more than compensates for the trouble. With the entrail fat the cracknels 
are completely dissolved, and you get very little soap grease, but a large 
quantity of lard. Don’t let the leaf fat stay on the fire until the cracknels 
are too brown. Always strain your lard through a cloth inside the colander. 

MEAT— When to cut. —Meat that is not to be cut till cold, must be 
well done, especially in summer. 

MEAT— Pickle —Moist sugar 2 pounds; bay or common salt, 4 pounds ; 
saltpetre, ^ pound; fresh ground allspice, 2 ounces; water 6 to 8 quarts; 
dissolve. Used to pickle meat, to which it imparts a fine red color and a 
superior flavor. 

MEAT—To keep fresh in winter. —In Minnesota, where winter thaws 
are not much to be feared, it is quite common to hang up a porker or a leg 
of venison or beef, and cut from it as it hangs, week after week. It seems 
to us that meat so kept must greatly deteriorate in flavor. We like best to 
cut the beef or venison into good pieces for cooking in various ways, and 
pack them down in snow. Of course they freeze, but thawing a piece 
brought into cook is a simple matter. Put frozen poultry or meat in cold 
water, and all the frost will shortly leave it. A coating of ice will be found 
on the outside, which will easily cleave off. 

MAPLE SUGAR.—The business of making maple sugar has, within 
the past few years, grown immensely. The farmer who intends making 
sugar, should have all his arragements made in advance so that he will not 
be hindered when in the midst of his operations. The first thing to be done 
is to clear the woods of logs, brush and other obstructions to the free pas- 


204 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


sage of a team in collecting sap. This can be accomplished in a few hours 
of hard work. The position selected for the boiling house should be on 
the lower side, so that the sap may be drawn down hill. If possible, it 
should be placed near a stream of water, so the vessels can be easily cleaned, 
etc. The boiling house should be comfortable, so that in stormy weather the 
occupant will not suffer. It should be well lighted, so that dirt of any kind 
may be quickly seen; the boilers should be placed in the centre, so that the 
attendant can readily pass on either side. There always should be on hand 
a good supply of seasoned wood, so that steam can be made rapidly, as 
quick evaporation is a very essential matter. There should be a reservoir 
for holding the sap, the bottom of which should be a little higher than the 
top of the boilers, so that the sap may be easily run into them, with a fau¬ 
cet. It may be made either a square plank vat, or in the form of a broad 
hooped tub, and should hold at least a gallon for each tree. To prevent 
the wood from absorbing the sap, and thus producing sourness, the inside 
should be well painted. It should be covered, to exclude dirt; and for conven¬ 
ience the cover of a trough or vat should be in sections, opening by hinges. 

In large establishments it will be most convenient to have the reservoir a 
large tub or cistern, placed low down, so as to be easily filled, from which 
the sap may be pumped or ladled into a smaller feeding trough, placed over 
the boilers. A partition of thick flannel, set vertically, should be placed 
near the end of the feeding trough, to strain out leaves, bits of bark, dust, 
etc., before the sap flows into the boiler. 

The worst kind of boiler is of cast iron, in the form of cauldron or ket¬ 
tle. Being rounded, the fire strikes the sides and heats them, and whenever 
the surface rises in boiling, a portion becomes burnt, and the quality is 
injured. Much fuel is also required to heat such a boiler. The best are 
made of sheet iron, and are flat and shallow, so that the fire only reaches 
the bottom, as they rest at the edges for an inch and a half on the brick or 
stone walls forming the fireplace. A good form for one is described by a cor¬ 
respondent. A convenient size is 3 by 6 feet. The following is his descrip¬ 
tion: Having bought your iron, get it cut the proper size by the tinsmith, or if 
you have shears large enough to cut it you can do it yourself. Turn over 
three-quarters of an inch of each inside edge, and lock them closely together 
with a hammer. Place it on a solid block of wood, and with a punch make 
a row of holes, half an inch apart, the whole length 
of the seam. Then put in your rivets, and clinch 
them tightly. Now with a straight edge mark off 7 
inches all around the edges of your iron, then cut it in 
the shape shown in fig. 207. 

Turn up the ends first, next the sides, which will 


Fig. 207. Pan for Boil¬ 
ing Sap. 







CURING AND STORING. 


205 


project beyond the ends; these must be bent over and riveted with two 
rows of rivets to the ends. Scrape the inside lower comers with a file till 
they are bright—then apply with a brush a few drops of muriatic acid, 
diluted with as much zinc as it will dissolve. It can then be soldered the same 
as tin. Th'e bale should be an iron rod i inch in diameter. Get the black¬ 
smith to bend the corners and weld it. To put it on, cut down each cor¬ 
ner one inch, and bend the iron round the bale. The last thing is the han¬ 
dles, four in number, which the blacksmith will also make, and you have a 
finished pan at a very small cost. It will last 12 or 15 years, and is large 
enough for 200 trees, without much night work. It should have ears or 
handles run on at the comers for convenience in lifting. 

The annexed cut, fig. 208, illustrates an improved form of arch for boil¬ 
ing sap, which is very highly spoken of by every one who has 
used it. It is very simple,* and any mason of ordinary inge¬ 
nuity can easily make one. 

It consists of a double arch for two sheet-iron pans placed 
side by side. It is made wholly of brick, or can be built on 
the outside with flat stones. 

A is door for wood—B B B three hollow cast-iron tubes to 
Fireplace lay the wood upon, extending through the wall at the right hand 
and Pans, g^e. -gy h av i n g them cast hollow, the heat passes out into the 
open air, making them much more durable. They are three inches in diam¬ 
eter, and placed about six inches from the floor of the arch—C pan—D flue 
for passage of the fire—E pan—F chimney, or a wide stove pipe will answer 
as well. The space under pan E need not be more than 12 inches deep, 
as no wood is placed under it. It should be raised about four inches higher, 
so that the sap, after it becomes heated, can be carried into the other pan 
by a syphon rigged with a faucet, so that the flow can be regulated. 

The pan C can be made longer than the other, but should not come quite 
out to the end of the arch, as the sap would be burned on the pan. A bet¬ 
ter way is to have the pans of the same size, so that they can be changed 
at the end of each boiling season, as the pan over the hottest fire will burn 
out much the soonest. 

The operation of boiling sap in one of these arches, rigged as I have 
described it, is as follows: In the morning fill both pans, and then build 
the fire. The sap in the pan C will be boiling before that in the other; 
when it is, put your syphon in its place and gauge it so that it will just keep 
the pan C full; then start the cold sap from the holder (also fixed with a 
faucet) so as to keep the pan E full also. 

This looks very well on paper, but equally as well when in operation in 
the sugar bush. The advantage of this kind of arch is economy of fuel. 

















206 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


In the common straight arch a great deal of the heat passes up the chim¬ 
ney, the bricks of which are always so hot as to be unbearable to the naked 
hand, and when boiling in the night I have often seen the flames rising a 
foot above the top of the chimney. 

In the improved kind there is no such waste of heat, and it has been 
accurately ascertained that the quantity of wood that will boil sap for ioo 
pounds of sugar in the old, will boil enough for 135 to 140 pounds in the 

new fashioned arch. A saving of 35 to 40 per 
cent, in the quantity of fuel, and the cost of 
preparing it, is worthy the attention of every 
one that makes maple sugar. 

A convenient mode is to have a long, hori¬ 
zontal fireplace, the pan for the fresh sap being 
placed first in front, and a few inches higher 
than the other pan, which is nearest the chim¬ 
ney, so that the heated and partly evaporated sap may run from the front to 
the rear pan through a simple tube, the stream being regulated by a faucet. 

A little practice will enable the operator to regulate the faucet so that the 
■sap will run a stream into the boiler as fast as the evaporation carries it off. 
The sheet of flame, after passing the fireplace, should be in a thin stratum, 
not over two or three inches thick, and this space should be left next the 
bottom of the boiler. A flame filling a space a foot thick, if spread out to 
four times its breadth, and only three inches thick, would evaporate nearly 
four times as rapidly. There should be a damper placed in the flue, so as 
to control completely the heat as the contents of the boilers approach the 
nature of syrup, and such a damper is absolutely essential in “ sugaring off.” 

Cook’s Patent Evaporator, is an excellent contrivance for boiling down 
;sap, which is admitted at one end and is gradually thickened by evapora¬ 
tion as it passes to the other end, the rockers on which it stands affording 
the means of regulating the process. 

There are two ways of making the spouts, of tinned sheet iron, and of 
wood. When the former are used, the vessels must be hung up against 
the tree just beneath the spout, on a nail driven into the tree. Old horse¬ 
shoe nails, straightened and sharpened, are good for this purpose. Tin 
vessels have a hole just below the wire rim, already described, for hanging 
on the nail; wooden vessels must have a wire hoop. These being hung 
closely under the spout, the latter need not be more than three inches long. 
They should be widest where they enter the tree, and be concave so as to 
follow the incision of the gouge. They are easily made by cutting the 
tinned iron to a proper size, and then giving the concave form by placing 
.them between a convex and concave pieces of wood, and striking the two 



Fig. 209. Cook’s Evaporator. 


CURING AND STORING. 


207 

together with a smart blow of a mallet. Ground sharp at the wide end, 
they are easily driven into the tree. Half an inch into the sap wood is 
quite deep enough. Many prefer the gouge to the auger, as they think it 
disfigures the tree less, no other cut being made than that of the gouge; 
and when the tree begins to become dry, a second cut is as good as the 
first. The work is done in less time than with an auger. 

The best wood spouts are made as shown in fig. 210. Thick inch board 
will answer for the material. They should be about four inches long, and 
shaved just large enough at one end to fit the auger hole in the tree. A 
hole is bored lengthwise through them, for the passage 
of the sap. In order to have all, the right size, bore a 
hole in a board, and whittle each down till it will exactly 
fit it. The size should not exceed seven-eights of an 
inch, nor the hole be bored more than three- 
fourths of an inch into the tree. The Hook Q 
for the pail, fig. 211, is made of very stout wire; 
when the hole is bored into the tree, the loop 
Fig. 210. of the hook is placed against it, and the spout Fig. 211. 
driven through the loop. A hole bored in the side of the wooden vessel 
near the top, receives the hook, which should not be bent up so much as 
the figure indicates. The slight shoulder of the spout holds it against the 
tree, where it has no purchase, and a heavy weight will not draw it out. 
Both are easily removed as soon as the sugar season is over, and the 
necessity of withdrawing nails is obviated. 

Both these kinds of spouts are good, and their advantages are nearly 
equally balanced. One or the other should be 
adopted, and the pail hung up against the tree (as 
shown in fig. 213), to prevent leaves being blown into 
it, to obviate the necessity of blocking up the vessel, 
as when set on the ground, or settling out of place as 
the snow melts, to avoid the loss occasioned by 
the wind blowing the dropping sap out at the side, 
and to be safe from the accidental visits of swine. 

Before commencing operations, the first and most 
important requisite for the success of the whole pro¬ 
cess, must be kept constantly in view, namely, perfect cleanliness. 

The sap pails may be made of wood or sheet-tin. Wood is the cheap¬ 
est, tin the best. If made of wood, they should be smallest at top, to pre¬ 
vent the hoops from falling off, and the better to exclude dust. Good ones, 
well painted inside, have been offered at $15 per 100. If tin is used, they 
should be made largest at top, so as to pack away in nets when out of use, 



Fig. 213. Pail on 
Hook. 






208 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


and thus prevent bruising. The top should be stoutly wired, with a hole 
under the wire to hang on the nail or hook, hereafter described. Manu¬ 
factured of the best tin, they will cost about $30 per 100, if holding 
nine quarts; or $25 if holding six. Tin vessels are easily kept clean, and 
if so, never impart sourness. Well painted wood vessels are nearly as good; 
but unpainted ones easily become soured. 

If possible, never allow the sap to stand in the vessels twenty-four hours. 
The fresher it is boiled the purer will be the sugar. If the sap sours in 
wooden vessels at any time, they must be scalded again before using. 

When the sap is collected by means of horses and sled, simple open bar¬ 
rels or high tubs answer every purpose ; if a circular board, an inch or two 
less in diameter than the inside of the barrel, float on the sap, it will entirely 
prevent it from splashing out. 

In districts of the country where there is much deep snow in the woods, 
it is sometimes easiest to collect sap in a cask placed on a hand sled, 
with runners five ihches wide, made of thin boards, shaved thinner where 
bent. These are somewhat flexible, and on this account run over the 
snow with a load more easily. The collector should have snow-shoes, if 
necessary. 

Some good manufacturers use lime water to neutralize the minute portion 
of acid that exists in the fresh sap from the tree. This portion varies; but 
it is believed that one quart of lime water to a barrel of sap is enough. 
Where brass or copper vessels are used for boiling, the lime water is indis¬ 
pensable in preventing a slight action on the metal, and dangerous conse¬ 
quences. It should be applied to the sap in the reservoir, before it is run 
into the boilers. 

Sap varies in saccharine strength. Trees growing in open fields, or in 
exposed places, furnish a richer sap than those in a dense forest. Usually, 
it needs reducing to about one-twentieth of its bulk, to form a good syrup. 
When this is accomplished, strain it through flannel into a clean barrel, and 
let it stand 12 to 24 hours. Then draw it off carefully, through a faucet, 
leaving the sediment. To save all the sugar in this sediment, more sap is 
then applied, to dilute the syrup, which in a few hours is drawn off to be 
returned to the boilers. 

The next process is to convert the syrup to sugar. This may be done in 
one of the pans, but many prefer a separate brass kettle. In either case, 
the fire should be controlled easily, either by a damper in the flue or by hang¬ 
ing the kettle on a crane. When placed in the pan or kettle, to every gal¬ 
lon of syrup add a beaten egg and a gill of milk to clarify it, keeping it hot 
but carefully from boiling till the scum has risen and been skimmed off. If 
eggs cannot be readily obtained, then milk alone may be used. If it boils, 


CURING AND STORING. 


209 

the skum is broken and mixed again with the syrup. In an hour or two 
most of the impurities will have risen and been removed by a constant use 
of the skimmer, the fire having been allowed to slacken. Some manufac¬ 
turers of excellent sugar think the eggs and milk unnecessary, and even detri¬ 
mental, provided every precaution is taken to keep the sap clean. The 
scum, which contains much sugar, should be saved, the sugar dissolved in 
sap, and the latter drawn off, as in the case of the sediment, already men¬ 
tioned. Before the final heating is applied, a purer sugar would be made by 
again straining through flannel. The remainder of the boiling should be 
carefully but rapidly performed. The precise point of time when it will best 
granulate, is determined in various ways. When the bubbles rising to the 
surface burst with a slight or just perceptible explosion, from the tenacity of 
the thickening liquid; or if a drop hot from the kettle into an inch of water 
forms a distinct solid globule slightly flattened when it strikes the bottom; or 
if a drop between the thumb and finger will draw out into a fine thread half 
an inch long—the process has gone far enough. Another mode—that of 
blowing out a ribbon—is sometimes practiced, and is thus described by a cor¬ 
respondent of the Country Gentleman :—Take a short twig, limber it by 
dipping its end into the boiling sugar, and then form a loop with a hole half 
an inch in diameter. Dip this loop into the sugar and bring it up quickly, 
and blow through the loop-hole. When it will go off in a ribbon eight or 
ten feet long, it is done. It will ribbon a few feet before it is done; but 
wait a few minutes and try again, till it will perform according to order. This 
process is something like blowing soap bubbles. It is then poured into 
vessels to granulate. 

The same correspondent thinks it important to add a piece of butter the 
size of a butternut to a batch of 50 pounds. If there is any tendency to 
boil over, add a little more butter. 

The practice of carrying the syrup to the house, for sugaring off, should 
not be adopted. It is laborious to carry it, and when there cannot be con¬ 
stantly watched for several hours, to prevent boiling over or burning, which 
no housekeeper can do and attend to her other duties at the same time. If 
a proper boiling-house has heen erected in the woods, it will afford every 
facility for the entire process. A neat shanty, made of rough boards, 18 by 
24 feet, may be erected for $25, or less. 

To obtain dry sugar, place it in a tub, barrel, or hopper shaped box, with 
holes for draining off the molasses. To make white sugar, lay a few thick¬ 
nesses of flannel on the top of the sugar while draining, these flannels to be 
wet and washed daily with cold water—they will thus absorb and wash out 
the coloring matter. 

A hundred good sugar maple trees will usually make in a season, from 

13 


210 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


two to three hundred pounds of sugar, when well managed. If every pre¬ 
caution is observed to insure cleanliness, prevent souring, boil speedily and 
without burning, and to clarify properly, a larger quantity of sugar will be 
made, and it will be more salable, and command a higher price ; and if 
intended for home use will more than repay him for all the pains he has 
taken to secure success. 

MILK—To preserve. —Milk may be preserved in stout, well-corked 
and wired bottles by heating them to the boiling point in a water-bath, by 
which the small quantity of inclosed air becomes decomposed. Milk, or 
green gooseberries, or peas, thus treated, will keep for two years. Some 
persons add a few grains of calcined magnesia to each bottle of milk before 
corking it. 

MILK— Sour, to restore. —Milk or cream may be sweetened after it 
has become slighly sour by a small portion of carbonate of magnesia. 
Saleratus, also, will correct the acid, but it slightly injures the flavor, unless 
very delicately managed. 

MILK—To preserve from souring. —Put a teaspoonful of scraped 
horse-raddish into each pan, and it will keep sweet for .several days. 

MINCE-PIE MEAT will keep well for several months, boiled, chopped, 
and packed in a stone jar covered with molasses. 

ONIONS—To keep. —The best way of keeping onions for family use is 
the old-fashioned style of stringing them. Gather them without breaking 
off the tops. Take up three or four and string together through the tops, 
and tie the string around them to secure them firmly. Add more onions, 
and tie until you have a string a foot or more in length. Hang them in a 
dry place and they will keep any length of time. 

PEAS, GREEN—To preserve. —Carefully shell the peas; then place them 
in the canister, not too large; put in a small piece of alum, about the 
size of a horse-bean, to a pint of peas. When the canister is full of peas, 
fill up the interstices with water, and solder on the lid perfectly air-tight, 
and boil the canisters for about twenty minutes; then remove them to a 
cool place, and by the time of January they will be found but little inferior 
to fresh, newly-gathered peas. Bottling is not so good, at least we have 
not found it so; for the air gets in, the liquid turns sour, and the peas 
acquire a bad taste. 

PEARS—To keep. —Same as apples, but the merits of the pears are 
greatly increased by their being taken from the vessels about ten days be¬ 
fore being used. 

PORK—To pickle, guernsey fashion. —For sixteen pounds of pork 
use a quart of water, an ounce and a half of coarse sugar, a pound and a 
half of coarse salt, and an ounce of saltpetre; boil for six minutes; skim it 


CURING AND STORING. 


211 


well, and pour it boiling hot over the ham. Turn it every day and keep it 
one month. 

POTATOES, SWEET—To keep.— To keep sweet potatoes through the 
winter, treat them as the ladies do their dahlia bulbs. Pack them in dry 
sand, which has been thoroughly heated, so as to drive out all the moisture, 
and then set them in a warm, dry place. Instances have been known 
where they have been kept for two years, being stored in a warm, dry cellar 
near the furnace. Keep them away from moisture. Unlike Irish potatoes, 
sweet potatoes must be warm and dry. 

POULTRY— Keeping. —Judge Buel kept poultry in winter more than 
two months in a perfect state of preservation, by filling them after they were 
dressed, with powdered charcoal, and then hanging them in an airy loft. 

PRESERVING FRESH FRUIT IN CANS OR JARS.—There are 
several modes of preserving fruit beyond the ordinary season of its ripen¬ 
ing. The simplest is selecting long keeping varieties, and merely placing 
them away in a cool, dry apartment, on shelves, in boxes or drawers, or in 
tight barrels. This course, variously modified, is pursued with apples, win¬ 
ter pears, and with grapes. Another way is the old-fashioned, now nearly 
discarded, mode of preserving in sugar, pound for pound. A third, and in 
some respects the best mode, is drying the fruit; if rich, high flavored sorts 
are selected, and the drying rapidly performed, in well ventilated rooms, the 
result is excellent; but poor fruit, half decayed in the process, never repays 
the trouble. The fourth mode—that which claims our particular attention 
at the present moment—is preserving in air-tight cans or jars. For this 
purpose but little sugar is needed, or no more than to impart an agreeable 
flavor, and it is therefore well adapted to the present high price of the 
article. 

There are many modifications of the process. The long and minute 
directions sometimes given, without pointing out the main and essential 
requisites, have rather served to bewilder than assist the beginner. All that 
is absolutely necessary is to select good fruit, to heat or cook it, and inclose 
it in air-tight cases, without any air bubbles or interstices. If kept in a cool 
place it will remain for months without injury. 

Quality of fruit.— It is important that the fruit be well grown and well 
ripened, as it then contains more and richer juice for preservation. Small, 
half green, imperfect, half decayed specimens should be rejected. 

Jars or cans. —The tin cans, formerly in general use, are now mostly 
discarded. The acid of the fruit is apt to dissolve the metal, and produce 
a poisonous compound, and the condition of the fruit cannot be inspected 
with the eye. Glass jars are now generally employed—earthen succeeds 
equally well, and are somewhat cheaper, but the fruit cannot be seen. A 


212 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


large number of patent covers have been invented, possessing various de¬ 
grees of merit. They may be divided into three classes—those consisting 
of cork ; those made of metal or glass, with cement lining ; and those with 
India rubber lining. 

The objection to cork is its porosity, requiring a large amount of cement, 
through which the air pressing is apt to impart its flavor to the fruit. The 
India rubber linings are the most convenient and easily applied; but they 
should be well made, and form a perfect fit; many that have been offered 
in market, not being tight, have caused the spoiling of the fruit. Different 
•modes are employed to remove the covers in taking out the fruit. The 
corks should have two small and strong cords placed under them, for lifting 
them out, the ends of which should be well covered with cement, to pre¬ 
vent the admission of air, or a round piece of cotton cloth may be used for 
the same purpose. Pincers may be used for drawing the cord or cloth in 
taking the covers off. The covers may be loosened with the India rubber 
lining, by inserting the point of a knife. 

The annexed figures represent one of the simplest modes of applying the 
India rubber lining. A ring of this material, 
about \ inch wide, and inch thick, is placed 
in a groove or depression outside the neck, as 
Fig. 214. Top of shown in fig. 214. A tin cap is then applied, Fig. 215. Section 

Rubber' h Band^ which fits closely, and presses against the out- wUlf IndiS^fbi 
Place of Tin Cap side of the band. The upper edge of the jar ber Band; Place 
shown by dotted j g groundj s0 that the tin cover rests flat upon 

it. Fig. 215 is a section of this arrangement, line. 

Heating the fruit. —The fruit should be heated to nearly or about the 
boiling point of water, but should not be made to stew or boil, as this would 
break the form of each specimen, and reduce the whole to a mass. For 
common family purposes, the best way is to place the fruit in a tin pan, 
with about as much sugar as will give it a proper flavor, and then set the 
pan in the top of the stove boiler, where it will fit as a lid; then let the 
water boil beneath the fruit until the whole is well heated through. Small 
fruits require less time than large ones. About 15 minutes will be needed 
for strawberries and raspberries; 20 minutes for cherries, currants, peaches 
and plums, and half an hour for apples, pears and quinces. 

Filling jars. —While the heating of the fruit is going on, place three or 
more empty jars in another boiler, and pour in cold or moderately wann 
water till it rises nearly to their necks. A heavy weight, as bricks, flat irons, or 
flat stones, must be placed on these jars, to hold them down ; and it is safest 
to place a few small strips of wood on the bottom of the boiler, before set¬ 
ting the jars in, to prevent their cracking by the heat below. When the 







CURING AND STORING. 


213 


water about the jars has nearly reached boiling, they then may be filled 
with the fruit by means of a dipper. This work is facilitated by providing 
a wide tin funnel, fig. 216, made on purpore to fit the mouth 
V—of the jar, and it should have a handle a foot long, to pre- 
V-/ vent any danger of burning or scalding the hand. When 

Fig. 216. Funnel t ^ ie J ars are ^ conten ts should be slightly shaken, to 
for filling Fruit start up any air bubbles that may remain, and the water 
seton^below) tofit a U° we d to boil slightly about them for a few minutes. The 
outside of neck, covers should be then applied, and made air-tight, at the 
same moment the jars are withdrawn from the water. Before applying the 
cover, the jars should be so completely filled with fruit that 
not the least air or space may remain, but the whole be 
perfectly solid. fig. 217.. Pincers 

To save the hands from scalding, there should be a pair from hot water, 
of forceps, fig. 217, made at the neck of each jar, to grasp it readily in lift¬ 
ing it from the hot water. 

The juice of all small fruits furnishes sufficient syrup with the sugar to 
fill all the interstices; but some larger and drier sorts require sometimes 
the addition of a portion of syrup made by boiling a pound or two of sugar 
in a quart of water. 

Some persons after having heated the jars, fill them while they are stand¬ 
ing on a table, and then replace them, and continue the boiling for a few min¬ 
utes, or until every air bubble has passed from them, before sealing them 
tight. Either way will answer, if the work is well done. 

Stone jars. —In the absence of common jars, which could not be pro¬ 
cured, a friend employed two gallon stone jars with entire success. They 
were filled as already described, the fruit running out all around as the lid 
was applied, so as to prevent any vacancy or air, and the whole well 
cemented. After several months they were opened in perfect condition. 

Cement. —The best is made of one part of tallow mixed with about ten 
or twelve parts of rosin An increase of the tallow softens the cement. 
The most perfect India rubber linings obviously need no cement; with 
corks it must be used freely, and is indispensable. The best mode is the 
following, described in the American Agriculturist: 

Small tin saucers, or “ patty pans,” are procured, an inch more in diameter 
than the mouth of the jar—these may be obtained cheaply, by 
the quantity, of any tinman. 

When the jar is filled with fruit, cork, is crowded snugly in, 
and a coating of cement is placed on the top. A portion of the 
melted cement is then poured into one of the tin saucers, and 


Fig. 218. 
Tin Saucer 
for cover¬ 
ing top of 
jar. 


the mouth of the jar inverted, placed in it—forming, soon as cool, a perfect 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


214 



air-tight cover, the saucer remaining until the fruit is taken out of the jars. 

Common tea saucers, and even blacking boxes, may be used 
instead of tin saucers. 

Quantity of sugar required. —Some have stated that 
they succeed in keeping the fruit without using any sugar; 
but in ordinary practice it is safer to apply it, and it is best 
to do so at once, rather than defer it till the fruit is used. 
Fig. 219. Fruit Strawberries, peaches, pine-apples and quinces, require but 
covered* with sma11 q uantit y> five ounces to a quart of fruit being sufficient. 

Saucer. Cherries, plums, raspberries and blackberries, require more, 
or seven to eight ounces. 

PUMPKINS—To dry.— Stew them first—they will be as good ass freh 
pumpkins in winter. Finish the drying in a warm oven. 

ROOTS—To preserve.— Market gardeners and those who have a con¬ 
siderable quantity of vegetable roots to keep for winter use, will of course 
pack them in trenches, but the family supply is usually kept in the cellar. 
When put loosely into bins and barrels, the roots, if the cellar be a dry one, 
become shriveled and injured before the spring. This difficulty is avoided 
by packing in dry sandy earth—the sandier the better. We scrape off a 
cart-load of soil from a piece that has been recently harrowed, and use this 
for the roots. Beets, carrots, salsify, parsnips,horse-radish, etc., are laid in 
boxes or barrels, as may be most convenient, with plenty of earth distri¬ 
buted among them. In this manner the roots are preserved perfectly fresh, 
and should any chance to decay, which is rarely the case, all odors are pre¬ 
vented from escaping by the earth. 

Flower-roots, such as dahlias, caladiums, and cannas, may be success¬ 
fully preserved by the use of earth, which for them may be quite dry. The 
tropical roots not only need to be kept dry but warm, and if the cellar is a 
damp one they can hardly be preserved. A spare closet in a part of the 
house where there is no danger of freezing, is preferable to a cellar for these. 

RUTABAGAS— Storing.— These roots heat easily, and they require 
most thorough ventilation, next, to be kept as cool as practicable, without 
freezing—a little frost will not hurt them, if thawed very gradually. If 
stored in a cellar, they must not be placed on the bottom of the cellar, but 
kept a foot above, on a coarse wooden grate, which may be made of rails. 
This will admit air freely. If heated, they become pithy, and compara¬ 
tively worthless. 

If kept out-doors, they should be placed in ridges, not over three feet 
wide, and as steep as they will pile, and as long as convenient. Cover well 
with straw, then with a few inches of earth—in the Northern States, six 
inches will do. Pat the earth smooth with a spade, to drain off rains. 



CURING AND STORING. 215 

Then make a hole with a stake or crow-bar, every six feet, and put in a wisp 
of straw—this allows ventilation. 

SAUSAGE, BOLOGNA—To make. —Take a pound of beef suet, a 
pound of pork, a pound of bacon, fat and lean, and a pound of beef and 
veal. Cut them very small. Take a handful of sage leaves chopped fine, 
with a few sweet herbs. Season pretty high with pepper and salt, take a 
large well cleaned gut and fill it. Set on a sauce-pan of water, and when 
it boils, put it in, first pricking it to prevent its bursting. Boil it one hour. 

SAUSAGES— Making. —The following directions were furnished by the 
Country Gentleman,\x\ answer to an inquiry: First, procure a good machine 
for cutting sausages, instead of doing it by the very tiresome old mode of 
chopping it by hand. Good ones may be had for some two or three dol¬ 
lars. Then, to every 100 pounds of the chopped meat, add two and a half 
pounds of salt, eight ounces of sage and ten of pepper—and mix all the 
ingredients thoroughly. It is a common way among housekeepers to “ cut 
and try ”—that is, add a little more salt, and a little more pepper and sage, 
tasting, and re-tasting, and calling in the aid of the palates of others, till 
the thing has too much pepper and salt, and is probably spoiled. The 
above rule is simple, easy, and good. 

SAUSAGES, SUMMER—To make. —Take equal quantities of sweet 
salt pork and lean veal; chop them finely, and to every pound allow one 
tea-spoonful of very finely-minced sage. Add a seasoning of pepper and 
salt, and mix the whole well together. Inclose a small quantity of the 
meat in thin puff-paste in a round shape, like a sausage, and bake for an 
hour or more, or fry like an ordinary sausage, with only a dusting of flour 
to keep the meat firm. 

SAUSAGE MEAT is best preserved in new cotton bags a foot long 
and two or three inches in diameter, which after filling are dipped in and 
coated with melted lard. When used, the bag is sliced off with the meat, 
as it is much easier to make new ones than to preserve the old. 

SUET—To keep. —When sirloins of beef, or loins of veal or mutton, 
are brought in, part of the suet may be cut off for puddings or to clarify. 
Chopped fine and mixed with flour, if tied down in a jar, it will keep ten 
days or a fortnight. If there be more suet than will be used while fresh, 
throw it into pickle, made in the proportion of one-quarter pound of salt to 
a quart of cold water, and it will be good afterwards for use, when soaked 
a little. 

SYRUP— Blackberry. —Blackberry juice, i pint ; clarified sugar, 2J 
lbs.; brandy or whisky, J glass. Dissolve the sugar by the aid of heat in 
the juice, and when cold add the spirits. 

SYRUP— Aromatic blackberry. —The aromatic blackberry syrup is 


21 0 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


made by taking aromatic syrup instead of clarified sugar. The former is 
made in the following way: Refined sugar, 5 pounds; water, two pints; 
bruised ginger, 1 ounce; cloves, J oz.; calamus root, J oz.; nutmegs, 1 
oz.; boil for two hours the ginger, cloves, calamus, and nutmegs in the 
water, strain and dissolve the sugar, and when near cold add oil of bitter 
almonds, 4 drops; essence of cinnamon, 15 drops; essence of nutmegs, 1 
tablespoonful; essence of lemon, 20 drops. Stir the whole well until the 
oils are perfectly dissolved. 

SYRUPS—To color. —Powdered cochineal, 1 oz.; soft water, 1 pint; 
boil the cochineal in the water for a few minutes, using a copper kettle; 
while boiling add 30 grains of powdered alum, and 1 dr. of cream of tartar. 
When the coloring matter is all out of the cochineal, remove it from the 
fire, and when a little cool, strain, bottle, and set aside for use. 

SYRUP— Lemon. —Coffee sugar, 3 lbs.; water 1J pints; dissolve by 
gentle heat, and add citric acid, 3 oz., and flavor with oil or extract of 
lemon. Or take citric acid in powder, \ oz.; oil of lemon, 4 drops; sim¬ 
ple syrup 1 quart. Rub the acid and oil in 3 or 4 spoonsful of the syrup, 
then add the mixture to the remainder, and dissolve with gentle heat. 

TOMATOES— Sweet pickled. —One peck of green tomatoes sliced— 
six large onions sliced—strew a teacupful of salt over them; let them re¬ 
main over night, drain off in the morning, then take two quarts of water 
and one of vinegar, boil them in it fifteen or twenty minutes; after boiling 
put them in a sieve to drain, then take four quarts of vinegar, two pounds 
of brown sugar, half pound white mustard seed, two table spoonfuls of 
ground alspice, same of cloves, cinnamon, ginger and mustard, and one 
tea-spoonful of cayene pepper, put all in a kettle and cook fifteen minutes 
slowly, and they will be splendid pickles. 

VEGETABLES— Packing for winter. —There are two ways in which 
farmers usually deposit their vegetables in the cellar for winter, one of which 
we are sorry to say is too common, is to take them up without much care, and 
with what earth happens to be adhering to them, and throw them into a 
pile in one comer or other part of the cellar, where they remain till wanted 
for family use. We here allude to such vegetables as beets, carrots, pars¬ 
nips, turnips, etc. If the cellar happens to be damp, many of them decay 
or lose their flavor; if it chances to be a dry one, a portion of them become 
shriveled and too dry for use. The heaps are overhauled repeatedly to 
find such as are good for the table, and these confused and scattered heaps 
present anything but a tidy appearance, while the decaying ones produce an 
unhealthy air. We have adopted another way, which we like much better. 
A few bushels of fine clean moss is obtained from dense woods or from 
swamps. Clean barrels or smooth-planed boxes are taken to the garden 


CURING AND STORING. 


217 


(a dry day being selected for the occasion) and the vegetables being taken 
up, well cleaned, topped and trimmed, are placed in the barrels or boxes, 
with alternating layers of soft, damp moss; when filled, the hand cart or 
wheelbarrow conveys them to the cellar. The moss keeps them clean and 
sufficiently moist, preventing the accumulation of water on the one hand, 
and the drying and shriveling of the roots on the other. They are always 
fresh and ready for use, and are taken out from under the moss without the 
least difficulty. As the barrel is successively emptied, a portion of the moss 
is taken off and placed in another one for future use. In case you cannot 
obtain moss, clean, moist sand may be substituted. It is, however, heavier 
and more difficult to handle, and the vegetables do not come from it so 
clean and fresh as from moss. 

VINEGAR— Making. —Vinegar is made from cider by exposing it in 
barrels not quite full, with the bung open, in a warm place, as the south 
side of a building, to the full action of the sun’s rays. The addition of a 
quart or two, or even a gallon of molasses to each barrel, hastens fermen¬ 
tation, and makes better vinegar. The addition of a sheet of brown paper 
placed upon the surface also hastens fermentation, by giving additional 
facility to the action of the air. The mother in vinegar consists of the 
concrete organic matter in the cider, which promotes fermentation, and 
then settles to the bottom in a sort of gelatinous mass. We suppose the 
old-fashioned way of separating the vinegar from it, described by Dean 
Swift, is as good as any, namely— 

“ First rack slow, then rack quick, 

Then rack slow till you come to the thick.” 

Purifying by distillation makes the vinegar nearly colorless, but this mode 
is only adapted for druggists. Vinegar is sometimes manufactured in the 
course of a day or two with great rapidity, by allowing it to trickle through 
small holes in the bottom of a pan placed on the top of and fitting a bar¬ 
rel, which is filled with shavings. The vinegar runs down the surface of 
the shavings, and is thus thinly exposed to the air, which causes a rapid 
fermentation completing the process, if skillfully conducted, in forty-eight 
hours. 

WINE, BLACKBERRY—How to make. —1. Having procured berries 
that are fully ripe, put them into a tub or pan with a tap to it, and 
pour upon them as much boiling water as will just cover them. As soon 
as the heat will permit the hand to be put into the vessel, bruise them well 
till all the berries are broken. Then let them stand covered till the berries 
begin to rise toward the top, which they usually do in three or four days. 
Then draw off the clear liquor into another vessel, and add to every ten 
quarts of this liquor four pounds of sugar; stir it well and let it stand to 


218 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


work a week or ten days ; then filter it through a flannel jelly bag into a. 
cask. Take now four ounces of isinglass and lay it to steep for twelve 
hours in a pint of blackberry juice; the next morning boil it over a slow 
fire for half an hour with a quart or three pints more juice, and pour it into 
the cask; when cool, rouse it well and leave it to settle for a few days* 
then rack it off into a clean cask, and bung it down. 

The following is said to be an excellent recipe for the manufacture of a 
superior wine from blackberries:—Measure your berries, and bruise them, 
to every gallon adding one quart of boiling water. Let the mixture stand 
twenty-four hours, stirring occasionally; then strain off the liquor into a 
cask, to every gallon adding two pounds of sugar; cork tight, and let 
stand till the following October, and you will have wine ready for use, 
without any further straining or boiling, that will make lips smack, as they 
never smacked under similar influence before. 

WINE— Elderberry.— To every quart of berries add one quart of 
water; boil half an hour ; run the liquor and break the berries through a 
hair sieve; then to every quart of juice add three-quarters of a pound of 
sugar; boil again one-quarter of an hour, with Jamaica peppers, ginger, 
and a few cloves ; when sufficiently cool, pour into a barrel a cup of yeast 
and a piece of toast to assist the fermentation (to be kept in a warm place.) 
When it ceases to hiss, add one quart of brandy to eight gallons of the 
liquor; then close the barrel perfectly air-tight, and keep in a cool place 
for six months, when it will be fit to bottle. 

WINE —Grape.— Bruise the grapes, which should be quite ripe. To 
each gallon of grapes put a gallon of water, and let the whole remain a. 
week without stirring. Then draw off the liquor carefully, and to each gal¬ 
lon add three pounds of white sugar. Let it ferment in a temperate situa¬ 
tion; when fermented, stop it up tight. In the course of five months it 
will be fit to bottle. 


Kitchen-Garden, 
Floriculture and green-house. 




The following hints are not to be understood as full directions, but as 
timely suggestions to assist in the performance of the various operations of 
the garden in their proper season, as delay or neglect from forgetfulness fre¬ 
quently leads to poor success or entire failure. We give the work for each 
month separately. 

WORK FOR JANUARY— Kitchen-garden. —Little can be done out 
of doors in the Northern or Middle States, or in fact in the Southern States. 
Various preparations may, however, be made which will essentially lessen 
labor and care, when active out-door operations commence. 

Hot-bed frames (figs. 220 and 221) may be constructed or repaired. 
Nothing is better for the in¬ 
side of the boards which come 
in contact with the earth than 
two or three good coatings of 

Fig. 220. Corners for hot- gas-tar, applied hot, when the nefting’corned of ho”- 
bed frames. boards are perfectly dry. It bed frames. 

will preserve them from decay many times longer than if unprotected. The 
outside may be painted with common yellow ochre paint. If any glasses in 
the sash have been broken, replace them and secure any that are loose. Of 
the various substitutes for glass, such as varnished muslin, oiled paper, etc., 
none will compare to glass itself. Hand-glasses, of various forms, may be now 
made ready for spring use. Fig. 222, is a hand-glass, made by sliding a 

pane of glass on each side of a 
double-sloped box, in tin grooves 
nailed on each edge, with a wire 

Fig. 222. Fig. 223. Fig. 224. loop for handling and hanging 
up. Fig. 223, is a box hand-glass. Fig. 224, is a long hand-glass for 
drills. 

Procure or prepare bean-poles and various stakes, brush for peas, etc.;, 
as the latter is most easily inserted by means of a good 
sharp dibbler, procure one or two of these tools. A black¬ 
smith may manufacture one with a steel point, in a hoi- Fig. 225. Dibbler 

219 




220 


brand’s CYCLOPEDIA. 


low, conical form, into which an old spade handle may be inserted, as 
shown in fig. 225. Bean-poles are best inserted in holes made with a 
crow-bar. 

Manure. —As nothing is more important than plenty of manure for 
successful kitchen gardening, every means should be resorted to for an 
abundant supply. Thoroughly prepared compost is always best^andthe 
beds may be commenced in winter. As long or fibrous manure can never 
be intermixed well with garden soil, it should be used only in such compost- 
heaps (figs. 226 and 227) as are to remain over summer. If spread in thin, 




Fig. 227. Badly made compost 
heap, or with thick layers. 


alternate layers, 
with loam, peat, 
turf or leaf- 
mould, and the 

Fig. 226. Well made compost heap heap worked 
with thin layers. 0 ver and made 

fine, after laying several months, it will then constitute an excellent enrich¬ 
ing material. A sprinkling of fresh or leached ashes .on each layer, as the 
heap is made up, will add to its value. Manure in a fresher state will an¬ 
swer well for many crops, provided no straw or long litter is used, and the 
manure is thoroughly and finely incorporated with the soil when applied. 
In this case it will be necessary to avoid the use of straw for litter (un¬ 
less chopped short) and use saw dust or leaves. A pile of strong, fresh 
manure should be reserved for early hot-beds. 

If asparagus beds were not mulched or coated late in autumn, 
the work may yet be performed. The chief object of this operation is to 
protect the plants, and to furnish liquid manure for the roots, both of which 
accelerate the early growth of the shoots. 

Flower garden.— Cuttings may be prepared of hard decidious shrubs 
and packed away in cellars, in boxes of damp moss. Hardy 
shrubs, set out in autumn, may be mulched with manure; it will 
tend to protect the roots from cold, assist in enriching the soil, and 
prevent the ground from becoming hard and crusted in spring. 
In the Middle States, where the ground is not frozen, beds for the 
spring planting of flowers may be cut in turf, and the excavation 
filled with enriching materials; and trenching, where necessary, 
may be performed. Marking sticks, rods for tying up flower stalks, 
Fig. 228. and structures (fig. 228) for supporting climbers may be made. 
Support Green-house. —As plants in the green-house, during this sea- 

ers. son of the year, are mostly in a nearly dormant state, they need 
but little watering. The soil may be examined, and if moderately or slightly 
moist, that is amply sufficient. The temperature should be about 45 or 





FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSE. 


221 


50 degrees in the day time, and 35 to 40 degrees at night. Never lower 
than JS degrees. Watch the thermometer sufficiently to prevent all danger 
from freezing. In very severe weather, exterior matting must be resorted 
to, and every chink and hole through which cold creeps through carefully 
closed up. 

Seeds. —These should be procured at the earliest practicable moment. 
Get the very best, and from the most reliable sources. Buy nothing that 
is cheap, for in the end they are the highest priced. It is not economy to 
prepare ground in fine condition at much expense, and then grow poor veg¬ 
etables, or lose a crop by the failure of seeds. 

WORK FOR FEBRUARY— Kitchen garden. —Read carefully the 
directions for the month of January, most of which will be applicable 
throughout the present month. Hot-beds for the early forcing of cabbage, 
tomatoes, egg plants, etc., may be made in the Middle and Southern States, 
procure a supply of fresh manure for these, and old or decayed manure or 
compost for spring application to open ground. Composts, worked over 
and made fine, greatly exceed in value coarse and imperfect mixtures. 

Hardy grapevines, currants, and gooseberries may be pruned. Examine 
tools and see that they are all in repair. Procure the very best, now that 
labor is so high priced—for a tool costing two dollars, and enabling a work¬ 
man to do fifty cents more labor per pay, will pay for itself many times 
over during the season. Seed drills, and all implements for saving labor, 
should be procured. 

Beets. —The Bassano is the best early variety; it is flat, somewhat like 
a flat turnip, but more ribbed, and varies from four to six inches in diame¬ 
ter. It is not suitable for long keeping, becoming coarse and fibrous. It 
is succeeded in a few days by the early Turnip Beet 
(fig. 229,) which is better for long keeping, and is 
adapted to extensive cultivation. The Long Blood 
Beet is also an excellent beet for cultivation, and for 
late planting for winter use. Its long continued culture 
has led to much variation, and hence the importance of 
selecting seed and securing the best varieties. The im¬ 
proved Long Blood (fig. 230) is larger and longer than 

iS * the common variety, sometimes extending to near two 
feet long. It is very dark in color, being nearly blackish-purple. 

Turnip. —The Purple-top Strap-leafed (fig. 231,) is one of 
the most valuable varieties. It is productive and excellent in 
quality, the flesh being clear, white, firm, rich and well flavored. 

The White Top Flat (233) is of medium size and uniformly white 
in color. The leaves are few and small, the flesh white, firm and Kg- 230. 




222 


brand’s CYCLOPEDIA. 


well flavored. The White-top Strap-leaved is similar to the 
Purple-top Strap-leaved, but differing in color—both excellent 
in quality (fig. 232.) The Yellow Malta is a handsome, small 
bulbed, early variety and is one of the best yellow turnips for 
summer use. The Yellow Stone is also an excellent variety. 

Onions. —The Large Red Wethersfield (fig. 235) is of very 
large size, and, yielding heavy crops, is extensively cultivated. 
It is one of the best for keeping. It is often five inches in 
diameter, and three in depth; the skin is deep purplish red ; the flesh pur¬ 
plish white. The Silver Skin Onion (fig. 236) is of medium size, with a 
skin silvery white; the flesh is white, fine grained and mild flavored. It is 





Fig. 235. Fig. 236. Fig. 237. 

Fig. 232. F *£’ 2 33 * 

a poor keeper, which is its chief objection. It is, however, well adapted 
for sowing at the close of summer, for early use, or marketing in spring. 
The Yellow Onion (fig. 237) is an excellent variety, widely known and 
extensively cultivated. It is rather above medium in size, has a yellowish- 
brown skin and a nearly white, fine-grained and well-flavored flesh. The 
Danvers Onion is a sub-variety, greater in productiveness but not so good 
a keeper. 

Radish. —The Olive-shaped is the best 
early; the long scarlet ( fig. 238) is the best 
for general crop. The Black Spanish is 
sown late, for winter use. Fl S* 2 3 8 * 

Cucumbers. —The early cluster (fig. 239) is small and very early. It is 
quite productive and a popular early garden sort, but is not 
adapted for pickling. The Early Frame is a few days later, 
and is a well known and a good sort. The Long Green is one 
of the best for general use. 

Melons. —The Green Citron (fig. 

240,) is nearly round and regularly 
ribbed; in size medium or rather small, 

Fl S- 239. s kin green and thickly netted; flesh 
green, very juicy, with a rich and sugary flavor. It 
is uniformly excellent, quite productive and is one 
of the most valuable varieties. The Large Netted Fig 240. 

Muskmelon (fig. 241) is large, oval, strongly ribbed, thickly netted, yellow, 






FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSE. 


223 


flesh yellow, thick and sweet, but not so juicy and melting as the last; 
hardy, and well adapted to common cultivation. 

Watermelons.— The Black Spanish is large in size, roundish or oblong, 
somewhat ribbed, skin very dark green, flesh deep red, fine grained, sweet 
and excellent; seeds nearly black. The Carolina Watermelon is large, ob¬ 
long, deep green, variegated with pale green; flesh granular, crisp, sweet, 
and of a good quality ; seeds black. The Mountain Sweet watermelon is 
similar in form, but of a darker green ; seeds brown. 

Squashes. —Among the numerous varieties, the following rank as some of 
the best: Summer Crook-neck, fig. 242, 
is bushy in habit; fruit medium in size, 
measuring about eight inches in length; 
bright yellow, warty. It is soft, and easily 
penetrated by the nail, when young and 
at a proper age for use. It afterwards 
becomes harder, and the flesh coarse and 
unfit for cooking. The scalloped, fig. 243, is early, erect in 
growth, fruit somewhat hemispherical in form, deeply and regu¬ 
larly scalloped. It should be used when not more than half pig 242. 



Fig. 241. Large Netted 
Muskmelon. 



grown. 




It is not quite so dry and sweet as the summer Crook-neck. 
The right time for using these two 
varieties is easily determined by pierc¬ 
ing them with the finger nail. The 
Hubbard Squash, fig. 244, is an ex- 
Fig. 243. cellent variety, which has of late years 
become widely known for its excellent quality and' 
long keeping. The form is an irregular oval, or Fig. 244. 

somewhat like a double cone; surface knotty, dull green; flesh rich, yel-* 
low, fine grained, sweet, dry and excellent; keeps well through the win¬ 
ter, but is rather best when nearly fresh. Sweet potato squash, fig. 245, 

is somewhat similar to the 
Hubbard, but is larger and 
| smoother, and the skin 
much lighter in color. The 
flesh is yellow, fine grained 
and sweet, nearly equal to 

Fig. 245. the Hubbard. Winter Fig. 246. 

Crook-neck, fig. 246, is an old, widely known sort, remarkable for its pro¬ 
ductiveness and ease of cultivation. It is quite variable in size, form and 
quality. 

All these, as well as other varieties of the Squash, should be planted far 




224 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



away from each other. Two varieties in the same garden, even when planted 
at opposite sides, will become intermixed and deteriorate. 

Seeds. —Observe the remarks under last month, and obtain the best 
selected seeds, from the most reliable sources. Plant but few varieties, 
and these the best—but a share of the new sort may be placed on trial, on 
a small scale. Among the leading kinds the following varieties may be 
mentioned as worthy of planting for general crops. Figures and descrip¬ 
tions are given of several of these, to assist in identifying the varieties, and 
for preventing mistakes. 

Cabbage.— The Early Sugar-loaf is the earliest variety, 
but must be used as soon as the heads become solid, as it 
will not keep long. It is immediately followed by the Early 
York, one of the oldest, most popular and best early sorts. 
The Winter Drumheads, of which there are several sub- 
varieties, are the best for winter use. The Savoys are dis¬ 
tinct varieties ; remarkable for their tender and delicate tex- 
Fig. 247. ture, b ut t h e y do not head so compactly as the common 
sorts. The Green Globe Savoy (fig. 247,) is one of the best and most 
commonly known. As it requires a long time to perfect its heads, it should 
be planted early, have rich soil, and receive good cultivation. The Red 
Cabbage is desirable for pickling. 

Asparagus beds should be forked up the moment the frost leaves the 
ground, turning under the manure applied in autumn, and avoiding injury 
to the crowns or forming shoots. 

Pie-plant may be obtained early by covering each plant with a barrel 
open at top and bottom, and filling its loosely with manure ; the stalks will 
grow up through the manure and become large, blanched, tender and ex¬ 
cellent. 

Early potatoes may be accelerated by placing the cut roots closely 
together in a hot-bed, and covering with a few inches of earth. Set these 
out when the sprouts have about reached the surface, and a week or two 
will be gained by the operation. If allowed more room in a hot-bed, they 
may be set out when two or three inches high; but in either case the trans¬ 
planting should not be done so early as to cause danger from frost. 

Lettuce, sown in autumn, transplanted into the hot-bed, will come for¬ 
ward earlier than if sown there. 

Earliest peas may be planted as soon as the ground admits working. 

Hot-beds in the Northern States, for ordinary purposes, should not be 
made before the 20th. If made earlier, for prolonged forcing, they will 
need encasing in fresh manure before the old heap becomes spent. 

Manure, if not spread in autumn, should be applied as early as practica- 




FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSE. 


225 


ble to open ground ; and if the soil admits, worked in towards the close of 
the present month. Remember that manure thoroughly and finely intermixed 
with the soil is worth more than double such as is left in lumps or masses, 
or deeply spaded under in a single stratum. 

Flower-garden.— It will be well to read directions for work for Jan¬ 
uary. Sticks, rods, and structures of all kinds for supporting flowers and 
climbers, being at all times exposed to the weather, should be protected 
from decay by paint. Nothing is better for this purpose than a good coat 
of paint. Avoid rendering them conspicuous by painting white; small rods 
may be green; larger structures appear much the best if painted brown. 
But of course each one can use his own judgment as to colors. To prevent 
decaying at the joints, apply a thick coating of gas tar at those places 
when they are put together. Stakes, poles, etc., should be well coated with 
the same material where they enter the ground. 

Hardy shrubs may be pruned for the purpose of bringing them into sym¬ 
metrical shape; in case they grow too freely cut off the longer leader; if 
too feeble, thin out the flower spurs. 

Green-house.— As the temperature of this month is about the same 
as January, you will follow the directions about the same as given for that 
month, and also as to the watering of the plants. Plants beginning to grow 
will need more water, as they throw off a portion from their fresh leaves; 
but one important point is, don’t overdo the matter. Too much water 
causes as much injury as not enough. Keep both shrubs and plants, as 
soon as they commence growing, pinched into com¬ 
pact symmetrical shape, and by all means avoid one¬ 
sided and long-stemmed growth. Remove decayed 
leaves and everything that is adverse to neatness ; de¬ 
stroy insects by fumigation with tobacco and a solu¬ 
tion of whale oil or soft soap. Re-pot or top-dress the 
soil when necessary. 

WORK FOR MARCH —Kitchen-garden. —Dur¬ 
ing this month open ground work can only be per¬ 
formed in the Middle and Southern States, and the 
former as late as the latter part of the month, and 
ri |Ve1in°-iiouse 'plant. 11 "" even then it is risky. It is better to wait till danger 
from cold and freezing storms has passed. 

Flower garden. —New beds for planting annuals, herbaceous perennials 
and shrubs, if not made last autumn, should be made as early as the 
ground opens. That the enriching materials may become thoroughly dif¬ 
fused through the soil, hardy perennials and bulbs should be divided and 
set out as soon as the soil will admit, as they commence growing early. 

14 




226 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Hardy shrubs may be transplanted at the same time, or afterwards. Be 
careful to spread out all the fine roots, and fill among them 
well with fine soil; cut the shoots back well, to give them a 
good form, and to cause a fine start. Sow annuals in hot¬ 
bed for early flowering. Tender shurbs and plants, and half 
hardy bulbs, which were covered with leaves or evergreens 
in winter, should have this covering gradually removed as 
warm weather approaches. Clear away all unnecessary lit- Fig. 249. Well 
ter, and keep the ground neat and clean. planted shrub. 

Hardy roses should be pruned before the buds open, and enriching ma¬ 
terials applied to the soil. The fresh start thus given them will furnish a 
finer and more copious bloom. 

Box edging may be re-set towards the close of the month. If, as some- 
t# times happens, the plants have grown tall and large, set 

them deeply in a narrow trench, spread out the branches 
like a fan (fig. 250,) and press the earth, as the trenches 
fill, compactly against them; then shear off the whole 
Fig. 250. ' Setting out row nearly to the ground. These will all grow and leave 
box edging. no g a p S . New lawns should be sown heavily with suitable 
grass seed (at the rate of two bushels or more to the acre,) as early as the 
ground can be prepared and properly mellowed. The seed will start early, 
and grow beyond the reach of summer drought, and being mown every week, 
will form a beautiful turf the same year. Lawns formed by sodding should 
be made veary early, before the grass starts, and the turf laid closely and 
compactly, so that there may be no crevices between the cut portions or 
beneath them. 

Green-house.— Air very freely in fine weather. This is important. 
Head back oranges or give them a proper shape. Give water more freely 
to plants in full growth. Remove all dead leaves, trimmings and rubbish, 
as well as dust, from the leaves, and moss or mould from the outside of the 
pots, and give the whole appartment a neat and fresh look. Carnations 
may be layered, and fuchsias propogated by cutting. Re-pot and prune 
plants. 

One important point about temperature. These directions apply only to 
green-house plants (and not for those from tropical regions requiring a high 
heat) the temperature sould be continued moderate, or from 45 to 60 
degrees. 

WORK FOR APRIL —Kitchen garden.— Complete the labors directed 
in March, prepare the ground for early crops as soon as the earth is suffi¬ 
ciently dry. With heavy soils, at least a week or two may be gained by 
under draining; and sometimes the same excellent effect may be attained 




FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSE. 


227 


by the addition of sand from any source where it can be obtained. It will 
be observed that the application of sand has this great advantage over 
manuring—it remains perpetually in the soil. In the Northern States all 
the early garden crops may be planted soon after the opening of this 
month, if a good soil has been prepared. Hardy plants, such as parsnips, 
carrots, beets, and onions, may be sown as early as the ground is fit for 
them. Those more sensitive to cold, such as beans, cucumbers and 
squashes, cannot be hurried by early planting; but only by fowarding in 
hot-beds, or starting under glass. 

Asparagus should be transplanted very early or before the shoots appear. 
It will continue longer and flourish better if two distinct beds are pro¬ 
vided and shoots cut from them alternate seasons; a continued cutting from 
the same bed has a tendency to check the roots. The old practice of dig¬ 
ging a pit three or four feet for asparagus, and filling it with a rich compost 
of manure and soil, is unnecessary, and induces planters to place the roots 
too closely together, in order to obtain all they can from the bed. The shoots 
will be larger and better if the plants are allowed plenty of room on a soil 
less than half as deep, with constant cultivation to keep the surface mellow. 
Asparagus beds covered with manure litter in autumn or winter, should have 
this forked in as soon as the soil thaws, avoiding injury to the crowns. 

Hot-beds maybe made in the Northern States by the first of the month, 
and will prove useful in forwarding young cabbage, tomatoes, lettuce, rad¬ 
ishes and cucumbers, as well as many other vegetables. Cucumbers and 
other plants which do not bear removal well, should be planted in pieces of 
inverted turf or in small pots. 

In planting seeds it is important to observe a proper depth corresponding 
with the size of the seed. More injury is done by deep than shallow plant¬ 
ing ; unless the work be postponed late in the season, when the soil is quite 
dry. We have known unskillful gardeners, for example, to cover beets two 
or three inches deep, very few of which come up, and the seedsmen de¬ 
nounced as a consequence. Seed from the same parcel covered scarcely 
an inch in depth came up copiously. Avoid superficial waterings of planted 
seed in dry weather, as it only serves to moisten and crust the surface. 

As soon as young crops appear, keep the soil constantly mellowed to 
accelerate growth and destroy weeds. In all instances never work a strong 
soil when wet or adhesive, whether for planting seeds or for cultivating it. 

Flower garden. —The first work is to clear away all rubbish and stalks 
of plants, straw, leaf or manure coverings, etc. The sooner the beds 
for annual flowers can be prepared the better, in order that the compost 
mixed with the soil may become thoroughly incorporated. Seeds of very 
hardy plants which start readily or spring freely from self-sown seeds in 


228 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


autumn, may be sown early in spring. Others which germinate with more 
difficulty, should not be put in until later, or when the soil has become 
warm. Many seeds are lost and disappointment caused by planting them too 
soon. If the soil is too dry to start them readily, it may be kept moist for a 
few days by a covering of matting or sacking, and the young 
plants may be protected by placing over them a box or broad 
hoop stretched with thin muslin, or inverted flower pots, fig. 
251, slightly propped up on the south side. Care must be 

Fig. 251. observed in the depth of burying the seed. Very small ones, 
such as the Portulacca, should not be half an inch deep, the moisture of the 
surface being preserved as above described. 

The great secret of success in raising beautiful annual flowers is, 1st, a 
good selection of sorts; 2d, a good, well prepared soil; 3d, thinning out 
so as to give plenty of room for each plant; and 4th, pinching in dur¬ 
ing growth, so as to form neat, symmetrical, densely blooming plants. 
Annual flowers which have been started in hot-beds should not be set out 
before the end of the month or later. 

Biennials and perennials sown a year ago should be reset, giving each 
plant sufficient room. Stools of perennials which have become large, and 
which it is desired to multiply, should be taken up and carefully pulled 
asunder and re-planted—doing the work very early, before growth has 
commenced. The growth of dahlias may be started in pots within doors. 

Hyacinths shaded from the sun at the commencement of blooming, will 
be finer and continue longer. 

Toward the end of the month care should be given to mellowing the 
soil in flower beds, especially in those occupied with perennials, where it is 
liable to become crusted. 

Lawns should be sown as early in the spring as the ground can be pre¬ 
pared, and the seed very thickly sown, brushed, raked or rolled in. It 
will start more evenly and densely than if the sowing is done later, being 
careful to sow it once a month during the season. 

Gravel walks should be constantly kept in clean condition—nothing 
can make a flower garden appear well where the walks are neglected or left 
uneven, or with ragged edges, or with irregular or angular border-lines. 
Let them form graceful curves and possess a neat, smooth, finished sur¬ 
face, and they will give character to almost any grounds they traverse. 

Flower-beds and edgings. —The modern practice, which is undoubt¬ 
edly the best in every respect, for economy, beauty, and landscape 
effect, of cutting circular, elliptical and arabesque beds in smooth turf, 
nearly obviates the necessity of forming edges to these beds; hence the 
lessened demand for box edging and plants of a similar character. In 



FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSE. 


229 



Fig. 252.—Flower 
Bed, cut in turf, 
with tile edging. 



some cases, however, such may be desirable, and if plac¬ 
ed on lawns, nothing, perhaps, is better than ornamental 
tile of a soft, brown color made for this purpose, project¬ 
ing but slightly above the surface. Edging made of grow¬ 
ing plants is only applicable to beds which do not border 
on grass. Box, if well planted or started, and kept pro¬ 
perly shorn down, forms a neat edging for a few years ; but as it becomes 
older loses its fresh appearance and is 
liable to be killed in spots. The smaller 
species of iris form stout, vigorous edgings, 
easily kept within bounds. A neat and Fig. 253. —Tile Edging, 
good edging is also formed of the Blue-eyed grass or Sisyrinchium, a native 
plant, growing frequently in wet meadows throughout the country. 

Insects, as warm weather approaches, will begin to make their appearance. 
Use the usual appliances of tobacco-water, tobacco smoke, white hellebore, 
soap-suds, etc. 

Green-house. —Accustom the plants to fresh air whenever the atmos¬ 
phere outside becomes warm, lessening fire as the season advances, or keep¬ 
ing it up only at night. Place the hardiest plants nearest the draughts of 
fresh air. Water sufficiently such as are growing rapidly, and sparingly 
those more nearly in a dormant state. Syringe frequently. Apply liquid 
manure to feeble plants, and cut back old or stunted ones to start new shoots. 
Pinch back such as are freely growing, to give them symmetrical form. Give 
fresh soil when necessary, and keep the earth well loosened. Make cuttings 
of verbenas, petunias and fuschias. 

WORK FOR MAY— Kitchen-garden.— Complete the work laid out 
for April. Finish sowing hardy vegetables; and as soon as the soil becomes 
warm plant beans, cucumbers, melons and squashes. Set out plants from 
hot-beds, and re-sow failures. Thin cut plants where thick, and constantly 
destroy all weeds on their first appearance. Insects will begin to multiply— 
one of the very best remedies for them is a brood of young chickens, which 
may be placed in any desired part of the garden, by confining the hen to a 
coop. The striped bug, so destructive to cucumbers and squashes, may be 
destroyed by passing around twice a day and killing with thumb and finger, 
r'vww* or they may be kept off by means of boxes cover- 

I 1 1 J ed with fine netting (fig. 254.) Small cheese 

Fig. 254. boxes answer a good purpose, being prepared 

similarly to the circular shade for flower seeds represented in the directions 
given for April. 

Keeping the surface of the soil constantly fine and mellow, will serve to 
retain a sufficient degree of moisture better than any watering. 







230 


brand’s cyclopedia. 





Water-melons usually succeed best on light warm soils ; but heavy soil 
may be made to produce them in great abundance by intermixing thor¬ 
oughly a copious supply of fresh manure to a depth of twenty inches or 
more and several feet in breadth, raising the surface to a height of about 
one foot. 

There are several varieties of sweet corn, but Darling’s Early (fig. 255) 
we believe to give the greatest satisfaction. 

A few special directions, familiar to experienced farmers and gardeners, 
but perhaps useful to others, may be briefly given: Plant peas for succes¬ 
sion. Different varieties of 
squashes and mellons which 
intermix, should be placed remote 
from each other—tomatoes trans- 
F j g- 25 ^ planted from hot-beds, giving 

about four feet square for each plant, and if they grow luxuriantly, so as to 
more than cover this space the soil has been too highly manured, and they 
should be placed on land of less fertility—seeds of doubtful quality should 
be tested before sowing largely—insert poles for running beans before they 
are planted. The Lima will ripen, being on the south side of a building or 
wall; long beets for the main crop may be sown toward the close of the 
month. The hand glasses mentioned in the directions for a former month 
may be used for covering tender plants when frosty nights are feared. 

Flower garden.— Follow the directions given for April for preparing 
the ground and planting seed. Re-plant annuals from hot-beds, and thin 
out where too thick, a common reason why they do not grow and bloom 
well, is overcrowding the surface. Shades or awnings placed on tulips will 
much prolong the blooming season. Early bulbs, when the leaves are dead, 
should be taken up and packed away, marking each sort accurately. Fall 
flower stalks likely to be broken down with wind, should be tied to neat 
stakes. Branching ornamentals, tending to grow tall and meagre, should 
be pinched back while growing, to give them a more compact form 

Keep gravel walks neatly dressed, mellow the surface of flower beds, 
mow lawns once a week or oftener, and preserve a neat appearance in the 
whole grounds. 

Bedding plants from green-houses may be set out during the latter part 
of the month, such as verbenas, salvias, etc. 

Care should be taken, in forming flower-beds, whether of annuals, hardy 
perennials or bedding plants, not to mix together those of dissimiliar char¬ 
acter, and especially those quite unlike in habit and height. Where flower¬ 
beds are cut in lawn, each entire bed should be occupied with the same 
plant, so as to form masses of flowers, or with more than one if they are of 





FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSE. 


23I 


the same height and bloom together. A succession of different sorts may¬ 
be in some instances obtained from the same bed—for example, annuals 
transplanted by bulbs, or between herbaceous perennials that grow upward 
and spread much laterally. 

Green-house.— Most of the plants in pots may be removed to open air 
at the close of the month. Skill may be exercised in arranging and plac¬ 
ing them up well together, and the pots should be kept clean and in neat 
condition. Many growing plants will need changing to larger pots, and those 
remaining in the green-house should be supplied with water, which in warm 
weather may be given in large quantities. 

WORK FOR JUNE— Kitchen garden.— The chief points of attention 
during the month of June are the destruction of weeds. There is no neces¬ 
sity that a single weed should grow in a well managed garden—most gar¬ 
deners being satisfied with destroying nineteen-twentieths, and leaving the 
twentieth to grow and ripen seed. It would be good policy to destroy all 
while at the good work. Constant tillage tends to preserve moisture in hot 
weather, and to accelerate the growth of plants. If labor is scarce, provide 

the very best tools—which at a very slight 
increased cost, may double the effective 
work of the gardener. 

A convenient, simple and economical 
support for tomatoes may be made of nar¬ 
row hoops,varying from a foot to eighteen 
inches in diameter, and secured to three 
stakes about four feet high, placed as 
shown in fig. 256. 

Plant for succession, peas, beans and 
sweet corn, and beets for winter crops. 
Set out celery and cabbage—the latter 
Fig. 256. Hoop training tomatoes. are effectually protected from the grub or 
cut-worm, by wrapping around the stem a small piece of writing paper, so 
that when set out the paper may extend an inch or so above and below the 
surface of the soil. Dip the roots in thin mud before setting out, and they 
will need no shading from the sun. Watch for insects as directed for May. 

Gooseberries may be easily kept for winter use if picked while yet 
green and hard—if nearer ripening they will spoil. Fill bottles full with 
them, cork them up dry, and place them in a cool and quite dark cellar. 

Flower garden.— Get out dahlias and complete the transplanting of 
bedding plants and hardy annuals. Short-lived flowering annuals may be 
sown late. Continue to take up bulbs as the leaves become dry, remove 
off-sets if any, and when the surface is dry, remove and pack away; stake 



232 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


tall flowers, stems, and cut away and clear off dead stalks. Removing the 
flower buds from roses as soon as they form, will cause them to give a later 
or second crop. Removing seed-vessels before ripe will prolong the flow¬ 
ering of other plants. Gather ripe seeds. 

Green-house.— Give plenty of air—carry out all but the tenderest 
plants—insert cuttings for propagation—make layers—wash foliage—mulch 
pots in open ground with mowings of lawns, to retain moisture. 

WORK FOR JULY —Kitchen garden. —Continue without intermis¬ 
sion the hoeing and mellowing of the surface of the soil, and the destruc¬ 
tion of weeds. Thin out crops where the plants crowd each other. The 
thinning of beets may be used on the table and constitute excellent greens. 
Watch for insects as before. 

Save seeds as they ripen. Late crops of turnips may be sown before the 
close of the month. To prevent destruction by the turnip fly on adhesive 
soils, all the clods must be crushed, and the surface left even and mellow. 
Spreading old straw over the surface of such soil, burning it, and then sow¬ 
ing the turnips on the surface after a slight raking, ensures success. 

Flower garden. —Continue to keep the surface of beds mellow and 
smooth, and every part of the grounds in neat condition. Layers of shrubs 
and plants may be made in open ground, such as roses, honeysuckles, ver¬ 
benas, etc. Continue the pinching-back process to give a neat form to 
shrubs and plants. Tie up plants to stakes where necessary. Gather and 
mark seeds as they ripen. 

Green-house.— Follow the directions of last month. Shade plants dur¬ 
ing hot days. Shrubs in a growing state, from which the baik separates 
freely, may be now budded. Cuttings for winter blooming may be inserted. 
Shrubs should be pruned and pinched in to give them a proper shape. 
Clear away all rubbish and keep everything in finished order. Secure a 
good supply of earth, compost, and sand for potting. 

WORK FOR AUGUST —Kitchen garden.— Continue to carryout the 
work of previous months in cultivating the ground, and keeping it clear of 
weeds, collect, put up carefully, and mark seeds as they ripen. Sow winter 
radish and late crops of turnips. Earth up celery. Thin the fruit on 
melons, and remove those particularly which will not probably ripen. Do 
the same with tomatoes. Potato tops, as the crop is dug, should be buried 
beneath the soil, and all ground rendered vacant by the removal of any 
crop, cleared of rubbish and kept perfectly clean, if not replanted. 

Flower garden.— See the directions for last month. Sow bulbous- 
rooted plants to obtain new sorts; set out bulbs during this or next 
month, or even later. Stake dahlias as they need it, and pinch into form 
and thin out imperfect flowers. Herbaceous perennials, which have ceased 


FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSE. 233 

flowering, and which often make a second growth in autumn, may be divided 
for increasing during the present dormant state. 

Green-house.— Propagate succulent plants by slips, suckers, etc. Mel¬ 
low the surface in pots and give fresh earth when needed. Bud oranges 
and lemons if the bark separates freely. Propagate pelargoniums by cut¬ 
tings. Plants standing in pots dry more quickly than in beds, and if grow¬ 
ing, should be therefore kept well watered. Procure peat, leaf-mould, 
sand, etc., for future use. 

WORK FOR SEPTEMBER —Kitchen garden.— Continue cultiva¬ 
tion to all growing crops. Sow lettuce and spinach for wintering over, 
protecting, in frames or with layers of evergreen boughs. Draining or 
trenching, if unfinished, should be completed. Continue earthing up 
celery. Save seeds of all crops as they ripen, selecting from the largest 
when magnitude is an object, and those first ripened when early maturity 
is sought, mark them plainly to prevent mistakes. 

In preparing new gardens for next season’s planting, or for enriching the 
soil of present ones, the sooner that manure is applied, and mixed with the 
earth, the more time will it have to become thoroughly infused in every 
part. The present month is, therefore, a suitable time to apply fresh or old 
manure or compost, whether left on the surface or turned under. 

Flower garden. —Set out bulbs—divide perennials—continue to keep 
the ground mellow and clean, and gather seeds. Dress and keep all parts 
of the ground in neat order. Lawns will require less frequent mowing than 
early in the season, but they should by no means be neglected, as a few 
straggling plants outstripping the rest, destroy the neatness of their appear¬ 
ance. 

Green-house.— Give fresh earth and plenty of fresh air to plants which 
are returned under glass. See that all parts of the structure are in good 
repair, and that flues are ready for use. Transplant seedlings, cuttings, 
etc. Give less water as the weather becomes cooler and plants are retarded 
in growth. Before returning to the green-house, clean them of decayed 
leaves, and give them fresh earth. 

WORK FOR OCTOBER —Kitchen garden. —Collecting and storing 
crops for winter will form an important part of the work for this month. 
All kinds of roots, such as potatoes, beets, carrots, etc., should be taken 
up without bruising, rendered perfectly clean, and the outside dried before 
carrying to the cellar. Those that will wilt in drying may be kept in a fresh 
condition, easily accessible, by packing them in neat boxes, imbeded in fine 
damp moss. This is much better than sand, both in being cleaner and 
easier to reach. Cabbage in the head may be packed away and kept fresh 
in the same way. Cauliflowers which have not headed, should be planted 


234 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


closely together in a box of earth, and they will usually form good heads 
before spring. Clear away the dead stems from asparagus beds, and dress 
them with manure for winter. Manure ground which is not rich enough, by 
leaving it spread upon the surface till next spring, by which time the soluble 
parts will become finely diffused through the soil. Procure, and secure 
from freezing, a sufficient quantity of fine mould and sand for hot-beds 
next spring. Sow lettuce and spinach for spring use, as directed last month. 
The season of fresh tomatoes may be prolonged by covering them when 
night frosts are feared, if it be only with a sheet of muslin or a broad news¬ 
paper. 

Flower garden. —Clear away dead plants, stems and leaves, and keep 
the entire grounds in order. Finish setting out bulbs, hardy perennials and 
hardy shrubs. Peonies may be divided and set out. Rake up and save all 
scattered leaves and use them in compost heaps. In setting out hyacinth 
bulbs, place a handful of sand around each bulb, if the soil is clayey— 
which will tend to prevent rotting. Late in the month, cover them with a 
layer of leaves, or long manure, to be removed in spring. 

Green-house. —Give air and fire heat, as both are respectively needed, 
and follow the directions of last month. Annual flower-seeds sown now will 
furnish a fine bloom in winter. 

WORK FOR NOVEMBER —Kitchen-garden. —As the season is rap¬ 
idly drawing to a close, finish the gathering of 
crops early in the month, as directed for Octo¬ 
ber. Roots may be rapidly cleaned by means 
of a revolving octagonal box, as shown in fig. 
257. Slits or openings an inch wide are left 
between the eight boards which form the eight 
sides. One of these sides runs in by sliding— 
by opening it, a half bushel or more of roots 
are thrown in, when a few revolutions of a crank 
Fig. 257. Root Cleaner. knockoff all the loose earth, which falls down 
through the openings. By using this cleaner, with the lower part running 
in water, roots are rapidly and perfectly washed 

Winter dress asparagus beds, if not already done. Gather the heads of 
winter drumhead cabbage, and pack them in damp moss in boxes, as directed 
last month. Those which have not headed may be kept and headed during 
winter for spring use. 

Green-house.— Plants recently removed from out-doors to the green¬ 
house, require more fresh air than afterwards, which should be admitted as 
far as practicable, according to the state of the weather. Moderate fire- 
heat should be applied when the weather is cold. A temperature of 45 0 










FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSE. 23$ 

Fah. is quite high enough for all strictly green-house plants. As they grow 
but little they should be watered quite moderately. 

Flower garden.— Shelter, with a suitable covering of dry leaves, tender 
plants, such as auriculas and white day-lilies; also cover tender shrubs with 
evergreens. To prevent the settling of the leaves and smothering, first put 
on a layer of small evergreen boughs. Take up and secure dahlies. Finish 
planting hardy bulbs, if not completed, and set out hardy shrubs. 

The following mode of obtaining a beautiful bloom of hyacinths for the 
parlor during winter is given by a skillful cultivator of this flower, prepara¬ 
tions for which should be made early the present month: First procure a 
handsome table made for the purpose, of black walnut and turned legs, so 
as to be an ornament to the parlor, about four and a half feet long by two 
feet wide in the clear, so as to hold three rows of eight pots each, the pots 
being eight inches in diameter. The top of the table is to be like a box or 
trough, eight or ten inches deep, made light, and well coated with white 
lead paint inside, particularly at the joints. Into this table fit a zinc pan of 
the same depth, with wire handles turning down into the pan on each end. 
The table is then ready for the reception of the pots. 

The pots are usually prepared towards the latter part of November, by 
taking eight inch soft baked pots and placing in the bottom about an inch 
of broken earthenware, charcoal or small pebbles, as may be most conven¬ 
ient. Then fill them to the top with a compost of equal parts of clean 
or washed sand, well-rotted cow-manure and loam. An admixture of bone 
or horn shavings, although not essential, gives increased size and brilliancy 
to the flower. A bulb is placed in the centre of each pot, just so deep 
that its top may be seen, pressing the soil around it and watering it thor¬ 
oughly. The pots are then set in a warm, dark cellar, and watered to pre¬ 
vent drying up. In about a month the pots will be full of roots, but the 
plants will not have grown more than an inch. They are then (about the 
middle or latter part of November) placed in the pan, and the interstices 
filled with common wood moss, cover the tops of the pots smoothly with 
the handsomest green moss that can be found, through which the tops of 
the shoots will just be visible. Water copiously every morning through the 
fine rose of a watering pot on the moss. The water will collect in the bot¬ 
tom of the pan, and the roots finding their way out through the holes in the 
pots, will absorb it and grow rapidly. In a few weeks a beautiful dense 
bloom will be produced, the effect of which will be heightened by a taste¬ 
ful intermixture of colors. A few narcessus, especially the polyanthus vari¬ 
eties, add much to the effect. The table should be placed in strongest 
light. As soon as a flower fades, it may be carefully lifted from the moss, 
the pot removed and a new one supplied from the cellar. The table may 
be of any size desired. 


236 


brand’s cyclopedia. 




Fig. 259. KeepingCuttings in 
Winter. 


Cuttings of shrubs should be cut with a small 
crown, as in fig. 258. They may be imbedded in 
sand, in dry trenches or pits (fig. 259,) covered 
with earth and then with a coat of manure. 

Winter mulching of 
shrubs, for protection, 
should be applied to¬ 
wards the close of the 
month. (Fig. 260.) It 

should be spread broad- pig. 260. Winter mulch- 
ly, or as far as the roots in 2 shrubs, 
extend ( a ) and not merely at the foot of stem, as too often done, and 
as shown at (£) in the annexed cut. 

WORK FOR DECEMBER —Kitchen-garden. —The labors of open 
ground management have closed for the Northern States, but in the South¬ 
ern States the directions for last month may still be followed. All stakes, 
sticks and tools should be carefully housed, and new ones made when re¬ 
quired, on leisure days. 

Flower garden. —The only remaining out-door work is protecting ten¬ 
der plants and shrubs, if not already done, according to the directions given 
for November. The preparation of manure, its application to the soil, 
procuring labels, tools, seeds, etc., as directed for January, may be com¬ 
menced during the present month. 

Hyacinths in water for blooming during winter, are prepared by first 
selecting good, hard bulbs, without side bulbs, placing them in glasses 
filled with rain water, and then setting them in a warm, dark closet, taking 
care that the water does not become foul or evaporate. Roots will be 
thrown out and partly fill the glass. Bring them out to strong light, as 
needed, and they will bloom in less than a month. A few drops of liquid 
ammonia will give a higher color to the flowers. The water should be 
changed once in ten days, taking care that the water which replaces the 
old should have the same temperature. 

Green-house. —See directions for November. Give air as required. 
Keep the earth mellow in pots. Clear away dead leaves as they appear. 
A temperature of 35 to 40° Fah. is sufficient, but especial care should be 
taken that it does not run down to freezing point. The hardiest plants 
should be placed in the coolest parts of the house. If any should accident¬ 
ally be touched with frost, water the whole plant, from a fine rose, with cold 
water. In severe weather apply mats, or close shutters. 

ASPARAGUS— Culture of. —It is a very essential requisite to give 
asparagus plants plenty of room—this being more important than to make a 




FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSE. 


237 


very deep and rich artificial bed for them. A writer in an Agricultural paper 
states that twenty-four years ago he set out a bed, in rows four feet apart, 
and cultivated like com, by horse-power. All that it cost him to supply a 
table of twenty or more for two months, was less than the expense of a dozen 
messes of green peas. Any soil, he observes, fit for a premium crop of 
corn or potatoes, is fit for an asparagus bed, without any preparation. It 
is annually dressed with manure, in autumn, plowed and forked under in 
spring. 

ARTICHOKE —Culture of.— The Artichoke may be grown from seed 
or offset suckers, separated in early spring. The best way to obtain a 
supply from seed is to sow the seed in April in a bed of good rich earth, or 
it may be planted in drills one inch deep and about twelve inches apart. 
It should be transplanted the following spring to a permanent place. 
Either in beds or drills, plants should stand two feet apart each way, 
requiring a deep, rich, moist loam; also should be protected with leaves or 
straw during the winter. 

After the crop has been removed sheep are tethered on the land with 
long ropes (or turned loose if there are fences.) They eat off the young 
sprouts as fast as they appear, and the plant dies for want of the support 
which it can only receive from leaves. By the time the summer-fallow is 
•to be broken up for the grain the Artichokes will have disappeared. 

BEANS— Training lima.— Set two rows of posts four feet apart, and 
eight or ten feet apart in the rows; the posts six feet high above ground. 
These may be made of good chestnut rails, hewed to three inches square at 
the top. Twelve inches above the ground along the line of these posts, I 
nail a strip three inches wide, and another at the top of the posts of less 
width. Across, on the top of the posts, is nailed another strip to keep the 
posts firm; another strip forms a ridge pole, supported by small rafters, set 
at an angle of forty-five degrees from the top of the posts. To the lower 
strips is tied cord, sixteen inches apart; each cord is taken around the upper 
slat, and over the ridge, and secured on the opposite side in the same man¬ 
ner. It is designed to have but one plant to a cord. In this method of 
planting, more plants can stand on the same ground, and still be so divided as 
to be open to the air and light, and the result is a product nearly or quite 
double that which can be grown upon poles. If the frame is well set up it 
will last many years. It may be so made that it can be removed to differ¬ 
ent locations. When the posts are set on each side of a garden walk, a very 
neat, shady avenue is formed, with economy of room. This plan is not 
confined to Lima beans, but it is equally adapted to all the running varieties. 

W. A. Underhill, of Croton Point, North river, has adopted a mode of 
training the Lima bean, which is exhibited in the accompanying figure, and 


238 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


which he thinks possesses some important ad¬ 
vantages over the common mode of training on 
poles. A strong wire is stretched from the tops 
Fig. 261. of posts placed at a distance from each other; 

.and to this wire two diverging cords from each hill of beans are attached. 
This mode gives more complete exposure to air and sun, and affords larger 
crops, and has a neater and more finished appearance than the usual way 
of training. 

BEANS— Culture of. —James A. McCollum, who has been very suc¬ 
cessful with this crop, gives the following directions by which he can raise 
beans at less cost than wheat, and with greater profit:—A warm, gravelly 
soil is the best, and if covered with a stiff sod so much the easier to keep 
free from weeds. Take pains in plowing it; see that every sod is turned 
over; roll with a heavy field roller; thoroughly harrow; then mark out 
your rows. For the medium bean I make the rows twenty-eight inches 
apart; for larger varieties thirty-two inches. I am particular to secure the 
best beans for seed, and all of the same variety, for it is very essential in 
securing the crop to have them ripen at the same time, and they sell better 
if they have a uniform appearance as to size, etc. Plant in drills with a 
bean planter. I use one that plants two rows at a time, putting on usually 
about five pecks of seed per acre, of the medium. Having finished plant¬ 
ing, roll all down smoothly with a roller; it is of great benefit to the crop, 
especially if you have to cultivate to keep down the weeds. I use a com¬ 
mon corn cultivator—one that is so constructed that you can shut it up 
close. Very often, on ground that is free from weeds, they never culti¬ 
vate them, but I think in stirring the soil it will increase their growth more 
^han enough to pay expenses. We consider the best time to plant usually 
from the first to the tenth of June, although I have seen them planted as 
late as the twenty-fifth, and yield a crop of twenty-five bushels per acre. 

CARROTS— Succession in. —In some pats of Massachusetts, four or 
five successive crops of carrots are taken from the same land, without a 
diminished product. All crops must exhaust land more or less, unless a 
part or all is left on the land; but in this instance, it appears that the 
annual manuring imparted more fertility than the crop took away. 

CELERY— Securing. —For common family use, it is best to let it 
remain where it grew and to cover it. It is difficult to take it up without 
more or less injury. To facilitate covering, dig a pretty deep trench for it 
to grow in—let it be in a sheltered place where the winds will not sweep off 
the covering, nor cause deep freezing. It must be covered deep, as freez¬ 
ing will spoil the celery. There are three materials for covering—fresh 
manure (which may be used for other purposes when spring arrives) saw- 




FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSE. 


239 


Fig. 262. 


dust, and forest leaves. The latter are best, but need some protection on 
each side (for instance, a row of pea brush stuck into the ground) and a 
covering to hold them from blowing away. Where the subsoil is not fertile, 
the trench in which the celery is set, should be three feet wide, and three 
or four inches of old manure spaded and well mixed in before the celery 
plants are set out, in order that the roots may have a good chance to grow. 
If a stream of water could be occasionally turned into this trench, to fill it 
a few inches, it would accelerate the growth. 

CUCUMBERS, MELONS, ETC.— protecting.— After trying various 
modes for protecting melons and cucumbers from the striped bug and other 
insects, we find the .following superior to any 
„ A „ _ other. Two small twigs of osier or other slen_ 
der wood, about a foot and a half or two feet 
long, are bent over the hill of young plants, and 
the ends thrust into the ground, as shown in fig. 
262. A newspaper is then placed upon these curved sticks covering the 
whole, and the edges are fastened down all around 
by a covering of earth as shown in fig. 263. This 
constitutes the whole contrivance, and affords com- 
plete protection from all insects ; the paper being thin Fig. 263, 

and porous, admits a sufficient supply of air and light, at the same time 
sheltering from cold -winds. Plants thus protected have grown twice as fast 
as those fully exposed. Another advantage of this mode is the protection 
it affords from night frosts, rendering it admirably adapted to plants which 
have been early removed from the hot-bed. Lastly and not least, is its 
cheapness. A gardener will apply it to a dozen hills in as many minutes 
by the watch, the material costing nothing to any one who takes a political 
newspaper. 

Unless the paper is very thin and fragile, heavy rains will not break it. 

Strong plants sometimes burst through ; but a better 
way, when they become large, is to tear a hole in the 
top, as shown in fig. 264, the remaining paper at the 
sides still affording some protection, although plants of 
this size are usually safe from injury. 

CABBAGES— Heading during winter. —It often happens that many 
cabbages have not formed heads during autumn on the approach of winter, 
and these are usually rejected and thrown aside. The mode we have adopted 
to produce heads from these has been long known to some of our readers, 
but we discover that it is rarely practiced. A brief description may there¬ 
fore be useful: Take up all these plants, and set them as closely as they will 
stand, in a double row, in their natural position, in a wade and shallow 



Fig. 264. 


240 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


trench. Form an earth roof over them, in the following manner: Set in a 
piece of upright plank at each end to support the ridge pole (shown by the 
dotted lines in the figure.) Place a rail or stiff pole on these for the ridge 
pole, and on this the ends of short pieces of board in the form of a roof. 

Cover these boards with about six inches of earth, or 
enough to keep the soil from freezing in which the cab¬ 
bages stand. This is the whole operation. Nearly all of 
these will be handsomely headed by spring, and being 
entirely excluded from light, they will be more delicate 
Fig. 265. both in appearance and flavor, than common cabbage 
heads. Two hours labor last autumn gave us a fine supply of cabbages for 
a moderate family nearly through the whole spring. 

Failure has sometimes resulted by not covering the roof with sufficient 
earth to keep out severe cold. About six inches does well for the Northern 
States. A sheltered place is best. We have allowed a very small ventila¬ 
tion at the ends, but have not experimented with a view to find how much 
is best. 

GARDENS— Late in summer.— Farmers who raise kitchen vegetables, 
and who do not keep a regular gardener, are apt to neglect their grounds 
toward the end of summer and early in autumn, and allow weeds to ripen 
their seeds. Nothing reduces the current expenses of a family, for the out¬ 
lay, more than a good kitchen garden; but the complaint with many is the 
labor of keeping it clean—the constant fight with weeds, weeds! Some have 
adopted the opinion that a quarter-acre garden will grow more weeds than 
ten acres of farm land, as some are managed. A few weeds, allowed to 
perfect seeds, will produce an abundant crop next year; and thus, year 
after year, the earth becomes filled with them, till the soil of a garden con¬ 
sists of three main ingredients, namely, a soil, naturally; a large amount of 
manure, artificially; and an immense supply of foul seeds, spontaneously. 
Is it not practicable to clear out entirely and totally the last of the 
three ? Are weeds a necessity ? If a garden contains a hundred thousand 
of them, and ninety-nine thousand are killed by the hoe, why not the remain¬ 
ing thousand? If nine hundred and ninety of this thousand, why not the 
remaining ten ? The soil of a garden may be completely purified of weeds 
and their seeds, greatly reducing the labor of keeping it in order, and largely 
contributing to a fine growth of the crops. It is easier to keep a garden 
perfectly clean than to be engaged in a constant warfare with the weeds. 
The labor is far less. The reason that it is not done, is the want of care 
and attention. Nearly all farmers are satisfied if a garden is nearly clean. 
This is the origin of all the trouble—namely, leaving a few weeds to seed 
the whole ground. The remedy is—eradicate everything, and then in three 



FLORICULTURE AND GREEN-HOUSEo 


241 


days go over again and eradicate anything that may have shown its head, 
and so continue the examination every week, weeds or no weeds ; and after 
they are out continue the process to keep them out A half hour in the 
morning, once a week, will do this effectually. 

GARDEN— Seed, quantity to plant. —The following is an interesting 
chapter for farmers and can be relied on : 

Asparagus. —One ounce produces 1,000 plants; requires a seed-bed < 
about 12 feet. 

Asparagus roots.— 1,000 plants bed 4 feet wide and 225 feet long. 

Beans. —One quart plants from 100 to 150 feet of row, or 150 to 200 hills* 

Beets. —One ounce plants 150 feet of row. 

Broccoli. —One ounce gives 2,500 or 3,000 plants; requiring 40 square 
feet of ground. 

Brussel sprouts. —Same as broccoli. 

Cabbage. —Early sorts, the same as broccoli; the latter requires 60 feet 
of ground. 

Cauliflower. —The same as late cabbage. 

Carrot.— -Three or four pounds to the acre; one ounce to 150 feet of 
row. 

Celery. —One ounce gives 7,000 or 8,000 plants; requiring 80 feet of 
ground. 

Cucumber. —One ounce for 150 hills. 

Cress. —One ounce sows beds 16 feet square. 

Egg-plant. —One ounce gives 2,000 plants. 

Endive. —One ounce gives 3,500 plants; requiring 80 feet of ground. 

Kale. —Same as Broccoli. 

Leek. —One ounce gives 2,000 plants ; requiring 60 feet of ground,. 

Lettuce. —One ounce gives 7,000 plants; requiring seed beds of 120 
feet. 

Melons. —One ounce for 120 hills. 

Nasturtions. —One ounce sows 25 feet of row. 

Onions. —Four or five pounds to the acre; one ounce sows 200 feet 
of row. 

Okra. —One ounce sows 200 feet of row. 

Parsley. —One ounce sows 200 feet of row. 

Parsnips. —One ounce sows 250 feet of row. 

Peppers —One ounce gives 2,500 plants. 

Peas. —One quart of smaller sorts sows 120 feet of row; of larger, 200 
feet of row. 

Radish. —One ounce to 150 feet of row. 

Salsify. —One ounce to 150 feet of row. 



15 



242 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Spinage. —One ounce to 200 feet of row. 

Squash. —One ounce to 75 hills. 

Tomato. —One ounce gives 2,500 plants; requiring seed bed of 80 feet. 

Turnip. —One and a half pounds to the acre; one ounce to 2,000 feet. 

Watermelon. —One ounce to 50 hills. 

GARDENS— Compost for. —Principal ingredients — stable manure, 
more or less, and turf from fence corners; these laid in alternate layers, a 
few inches thick, and occasionally added as other materials increase. Aux¬ 
iliary ingredients—weeds, litter, rakings of leaves, potato tops, wood and 
coal ashes, soapsuds, dish-water, refuse hair, dust from house sweeping, 
chicken and fish bones, gutter scrappings and nearly every thing else that 
would be “ dirt ” elsewhere. Rotted a year in a heap, and these ingredi¬ 
ents will form a valuable compost to the benefit and neatness of the 
premises. 

KITCHEN SLOPS AND TOMATOES.—N. K. Meriam, of Grafton 
Station, Mass., has adopted a simple and cheap expedient for growing early 
tomatoes and disposing of the slops from the kitchen at one operation. 
The kitchen yard is in a warm, sheltered place, with a southern exposure. 
Barrels are placed near the wall, nearly filled with rich earth. In these, 
tomato plants are placed early in the season, and may be easily cov¬ 
ered up on cold nights. As the plants grow and increase in foliage, and 
thus throw off large quantities of moisture, the kitchen slops are poured 
into the barrels, for watering the plants. The warmth, moisture and ele¬ 
ments of fertility thus supplied, produce an early growth; while the con¬ 
finement of the roots in the barrel prevents too much running to stem at 
the expense of fruit. The barrels should not be water tight, but admit of 
drainage. Any number of barrels may be thus placed in a row, and be 
planted with cucumbers and other vegetables. If properly trained, they 
present a neat and ornamental appearance, and the barrels serve as reser¬ 
voirs, to get rid of kitchen slops, so often a nuisance about kitchen doors. 






i 


\ 








V 
























Fig. 269.—Silium Auratum. Fig. 270,—Phlox Drummodi. 


244 


Floriculture. 


HINTS FOR EACH MONTH—JANUARY AND FEBRUARY.— 
Prune all your ornamental shrubs that require pruning, removing carefully 
all broken, decayed, and ill-formed parts, taking care to give the best pos¬ 
sible form to their heads, so that none of the fine effect, whether in blos¬ 
soms or foliage, may be lost. 

If any such plants as crocuses, snow-drops, the ranuncula, tulip, jonquil,, 
and bulbous plants in general, are left out of the ground, they may now be 
planted for late flowering. If you wish to increase the numbers of such, 
plants as the snow-drop or crocus, take them up only once in two years, but 
they should not be left longer. 

MARCH.—The hardy kinds of annual flower seeds may be sown in the 
garden borders, if the weather be warm and dry. Larkspur, Venus’ look¬ 
ing-glass, candy-tuft, catch-fly, sweet pea, la vatera, hawk-weed, and other 
hardy species, will flower much better than if sown at a later period. They 
should be sown where they are intended to flower, whether in beds, borders,, 
or pots. 

The ground having been well mellowed, finely broken, and leveled, open; 
small patches with a trowel, about six inches in width, at moderate distances. 
Draw a little of the earth from the top to one side, and sow the seed, each, 
sort in separate patches, and in such forms and groups as will produce the 
most agreeable effect of color. Small seeds should be covered about a quar¬ 
ter of an inch deep; the larger in proportion to their size. 

Peas should be covered at least an inch in depth. Hardy fibrous-rooted 
perennials may also be planted, if the weather be warm and the ground dry. 
In planting, remember to leave the larger sorts room for growth; or if 
planted too thick, they should be properly thinned out, after they have been 
up long enough to determine which may be selected as likely to form the 
finest and healthiest plants. Double chamomile, phlox, lobelia, scarlet- 
lychnis, Canterbury bell, London pride, fox-glove, hollyhocks, and many 
others, should be sown this month. In planting, you should have a care 
that in every part there should be a regular succession of flowers, so that 
no place, during the whole flowering season, will ever be left entirely without 
them. 


24S 


246 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Remove all litter from the walks and beds, Loosen the earth of the 
beds with a hoe, and rake them carefully. Finish pruning the hardy shrubs, 
and roll the gravel walks and lawns with a roller, to settle earth which has 
been swollen by the frost. Sow the ten-week stock and mignonette in 
warm sunny borders. 

APRIL,—Pinks should be planted in a good, fresh, pulverized, loamy 
soil, about nine inches apart; and the bed should have a convex or round¬ 
ing surface, to shed the rain. Pinks should be planted in September or 
October, and in the same ground where they are intended to bloom; but if 
not planted in autumn, now is the time. They may now also be propa¬ 
gated by a division of the roots. These beautiful, fragrant, and easily cul¬ 
tivated flowers, are generally favorites, and they make most lovely borders. 
Flowering shrubs and ornamental trees may be set out during this month. 

MAY.—Sow all the flower-seeds which may yet be left out of the ground; 
hoe and rake the borders; transplant perennials, and finish pruning shrubs 
and evergreens. When tulips begin to blossom, they should be shaded 
from the sun; for a considerable degree of heat causes the colors to inter¬ 
mingle, and often greatly injures their beauty; and the same is true of hy¬ 
acinths, which should never be kept in a hot sun.' They should not, how¬ 
ever, be so shaded as to exclude the light, or the colors will faint. Neither 
hyacinths nor tulips require artificial watering, even in the driest seasons; 
still the early rains, if moderate, contribute to enrich the bloom; but after 
flowering, too much wet injures the roots. The stems of both tulips and 
hyacinths should be supported by tying them loosely with strings of green 
worsted or painted sticks placed behind them. Plant dahlias early in May. 

JUNE.—After tulip and hyacinths have done flowering, let them remain 
until the foliage begins to turn yellow, only taking care to shield them from 
heavy rains. When kept thus about six weeks, it will generally be time to 
remove them. Take up the roots carefully, lay them in a dry, shady place, 
taking care to distinguish the most important varieties. They may, when 
quite dry, be packed in well-dried sand, barley-chaff, or saw-dust. Each 
root should be rolled in a separate paper. Also all the early flowering bulbs 
should be taken up as soon as they have completely done flowering, and 
the leaves decay; and the finest bulbs may either be planted out again, or 
preserved the same way as hyacinths. 

The first week in this month is, in the Northern States, the best time for 
planting the tube-rose; but in the Middle States this should be done a 
month earlier. 

Scarlet lychnis, wall-flowers, and stock gilly-flowers may now be propaga¬ 
ted by the young slips of the present year. Let the young stalks of the 
lychnis be cut into lengths of six or seven inches, and planted in a shady 




) 


i 






FLORICULTURE. 


249 

border of rich, light earth, with one or two joints of each cutting above 
ground. Close the earth well around them; water moderately, and if hand¬ 
glasses are placed over them it will facilitate their rooting. 

Wall-flowers and stock gilly-flowers should be propagated from the short¬ 
est and stoutest slips. Let them be from four to six inches long, and care¬ 
fully cut from the mother plants. Plant either in pots, or in a shady border, 
inserting in the ground up to their leaves. Give them a little water, shelter 
trom the mid-day sun until they are rooted, and water occasionally during 
summer. In the same way phloxes and other fibrous-rooted plants may be 
propagated. 

Be very careful to keep the beds and borders free from weeds, and espe¬ 
cially those where young seedlings are growing. 

JULY.—Transplant all the latter kind of annuals that will bear, and may 
require it, such as French and African marigolds, China asters, chrysanthe¬ 
mums, the China pink, balsomime, amaranths, and various others. 

Trim your box borders. Let this be done in moist weather, or they will dry 
and turn red. Cut them even at the top and sides. Box edgings should 
not be higher than three inches, nor broader than two. 

Transplant the early-sown seedling biennials and perennials, such as 
sweet-williams, Monk’s hood, rose camfrion, asters and coreopsis. 

Keep the walks, borders and shrubberies very neatly. All weeds should 
be exterminated on their first appearance—in the open space with the hoe, 
and among the more closely-growing plants with the hand. This should be 
done in a dry day. Remove the weeds immediately. 

Cut off all dry flowering stems of the early sorts; place sticks for the sup¬ 
port, and tie up all that may require it. Leave the principal stems of such 
plants as you wish to obtain seed from, to ripen their seeds. Pick off all 
withered leaves, and remove decayed parts. Plant stock gilly-flowers and 
wall-flowers either where they may be sheltered by a garden frame, or in the 
open borders, from whence they.maybe removed in September, as they will 
not endure the frosts of the Northern and Middle States. Pay particular 
attention to watering. Let the water be sprinkled over the whole plant, for 
the pores of the leaves become choked by dust, and require the application 
of water hardly less than the roots. The evening is the best time for water¬ 
ing. Sensitive plants which have been raised in hot-beds, may be brought 
out into the open air and set in very warm places. 

AUGUST.—This month the seeds of such bulbs as you wish to obtain 
varieties of may be sown, as the tulip, hyacinth, crown imperial, iris and lily. 
The seeds of these should be sown as soon as they ripen, in order to have 
them vegetate the following spring. If kept until that time, they will not 
vegetate until the next year. The early-flowering fibrous-rooted perennials 


250 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


may also be propogated by suckers and divisions of the roots. Pick off all 
decayed leaves; plant in a shady border, and cover loosely with mats until 
rooted. They should be watered immediately, and this operation should 
be frequently repeated till they are well grown. The pink, sweet-william, 
primrose, daisy, phlox, violet, and many others may be propagated in this 
way. 

Many native plants may also now be brought to the garden, and made 
to vie with its foreign beauties. If you meet in your walks with any flower 
you wish to secure, take it up with a ball of earth ; cut off the flower-stems, 
if there be any; plant it immediately on bringing it home, observing to give 
shade and water for a time, especially to those having fibrous roots. Re¬ 
member to place them as near as possible in situations resembling their 
natural habit. The next year they will open into full flower, and afterward 
they may be propagated, as other plants, in their season. In this way many 
of our native flowers, such as asters, gentiana, cassia, cyprepedium, sarra- 
cenia, iris, and others, may be made the finest ornaments of the garden; 
and they have alwavs this advantage, that they are hardy and easy of 
culture. 

Give water freely; clip hedges and box edgings; mow grass walks and 
lawns once a fortnight; sweep, dress, and roll the gravel walks, at least once 
a week ; correct even the least disorder, and see that all is preserved in per¬ 
fect neatness, order and beauty. The first week of this month all the 
autumnal flowering bulbs which you may yet have out of ground should 
be planted, such as the crocus, colchicum, narcissus, and amarylis,and also 
any spring-flowering bulbs that will not bear to be too long kept out of 
ground, as the red and white lily, iris, spring crocus, snowdrop, and crown 
imperial. 

SEPTEMBER.—Transplant the layers of pinks and carnations, and also 
seedlings of the same plants, into such borders as you wish them to flower 
in, being careful to take up each with a ball of earth, and to water them 
when newly planted. Transplant perennial and biennial fibrous-rooted 
plants; plant out the spring-flowering bulbs. Plant tulip, narcissus, and 
hyacinth bulbs about four inches below the surface for a light and dry soil; 
but if it be hard and heavy, three inches will be enough. 

Clip box edgings and hedges; and towards the end of this month dig the 
earth in the vacant beds, to prepare them for the reception of new plants. 
Make all necessary preparations for planting choice tulips, hyacinths, etc., 
both in the care of the grounds and in the manufacture of composts. 

OCTOBER.—Prepare the ground and plant pinks, if this has not been 
done before. Select a fresh loamy soil. Let this be well pulverized, 
trenched about two feet deep and manured with a stratum of cow-dung 


FLORICULTURE. 


251 


two years old and good sound earth, in equal parts. This stratum should 
be about six inches thick, and about four inches below the surface. Let 
the bed be raised higher than the surrounding surface, and the plants put out 
by the first week in this month. The bed should be kept free from weeds, 
and its surface stirred a little occasionally. It will need but a slight cover¬ 
ing. Tulips should be planted by the middle or latter end of this month, 
and hyacinths from the beginning of October to the middle of November; 
and all spring flowering-bulbs should be planted now if not done before. 
You will also sow the seeds of bulbous and tuberous plants, transplant 
biennial and perennial roots, and pot such plants as will not bear the frost. 
Plant box and other plants for edging, and set and clip hedges. Ever¬ 
green hedges, as a general thing, however, succeed best in the spring; and 
so we have found do all evergreen trees and shrubs. 

NOVEMBER.—Protect all bulbous roots that need protection. Take 
up tube-roses, and all tender bulbs that will not bear frost, and which lie 
dormant in winter; dry, and place them where they will be perfectly secure 
from frost. This month all kinds of hardy trees and shrubs may be trans¬ 
planted, such as the common and Persian lilac, Judas tree, sassafras, mag¬ 
nolia, the lime, plane, walnut, elm, and maple trees, and the honey locust, 
oak, and tulip trees. Shrubs should be set out from three to five feet asun¬ 
der, and trees from ten to fifteen feet. They may, however, be planted closer 
and afterwards thinned. 

DECEMBER.—This month sow Anemone, Ranunculus, Polyanthus, 
Auricula, and Cyclamen seeds. These should be sown in frames similar to 
those used for cucumbers, and the glasses placed down immediately. 
Ranunculus and Anemone should be covered very lightly. The soil over 
them should not be covered to exceed one-tenth of an inch. Be careful 
to remove all earth-worms, as they are very destructive to young plants. 

Continue to prune hardy trees and shrubs, and see that the newly-planted 
trees and shrubs have their roots well protected from the frost. This can 
be done by placing litter around the roots, and enveloping the whole plant 
in a wisp of straw, carried up and surrounding the stem, in the form of an 
inverted cone or sugar-loaf. 

BOUQUETS— Preserving. —The American Artisan says that bouquets 
may be kept a month in continuous blooming (of course with a proper 
selection of continuous bloomers), by first sprinkling with fresh water, and 
then placing in water containing some soapsuds. Take them out each 
morning and lay them in fresh water a minute or two, and replace them. 
Change the soapsuds twice a week. 

BULBS—In the house. —By the exercise of a little taste a world of 
pleasure can be derived from the cultivation of bulbs in the house, as they 


252 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


can be used in almost innumerable ways. Hyacinth, narcissus and cro¬ 
cuses may be grown in glasses of water. Pot culture, for general use, 
however, is quite as good, and a little more natural. A very pretty arrange¬ 
ment is to plant a variety of bulbs in baskets or boxes. Fill the boxes with 
sandy soil, and if a little moss broken up finely is mixed with the soil, it will 
keep it from becoming packed or heavy from frequent watering. The box 
can then be planted with bulbs, always planting those that grow the highest 
in the center, and the low-growing kinds on the edges. 

FLOWER-BEDS— Position of.— It often happens that two different 
flower-beds may be equally well managed and flourish alike, yet one may 
be a mass of brilliancy while the other exhibits little or no beauty. There 
are many flowers which always face the light of the sun; consequently the 
beds should be so placed that the spectator in the walk or window, should 
look them full in the face. That is, the strongest light and the position of 
the spectator should always be on the same side of the bed. This will be 
found particularly necessary with the pansy or tri-colored violet, and some 
others of the smaller flowering plants. 

FLOWER POTS— In rooms. —Pots which contain ornamental plants in 
rooms, are often needlessly repulsive by the exposure of the earth in which 
they are planted. We have found a covering of an inch of white sand to 
prevent crusting the surface or soiling the edges of the pot, and at the 
same time allow free watering. A more ornamental appearance is 
effected by procuring from the woods the handsome flakes of fresh green 
moss, found in damp places or on rotten logs, and covering the earth in 
the pots neatly with one of these flakes. It serves as a mulch, keeps the 
earth moist and mellow, admits watering, and furnishes a neat green carpet 
under the plants. 

FLOWERING—To prolong. —In order to prolong the flowering season 
in perpetual and other roses, and in annual and perennial plants, clip off 
with a pair of scissors the seed vessels, as soon as the petals fall. This 
prevents the exhaustion of the plants in the forming of seed, continues its 
vigor, and preserves a neater appearance of the whole plant, at the same 
time, the use of the cissors will enable the gardener to impart a symmet¬ 
rical form to the plants. 

HANGING-BASKETS— House plants and.— Oyster kegs and mack, 
erel tubs, when painted green, do very well to plant house-plants in ; and 
large cacoa-nut shells, cut in two and hung up with cord make respectable 
hanging-baskets. 

LILIES— Propagation of.— The bulbs of lilies are made up of scales, 
sometimes amounting to nearly a hundred in a single plant, but usually 
much fewer in number. One-fourth or one-fifth of these may be broken 



Garden Pink. 


Fig. 280.—Purple 
Candy tuft. 




Fig. 278.—Double Fig. 279.—Group of Petunias. 

Pink. 



Fig. 281.—Camelia 
Flowered Balsam. 



Fig 282.—Carnation. 




253 








FLORICULTURE. 


255 


off from the outside without injury to the bulb. The minute latent bulb at 
the base of each scale may be made, by proper treatment, to develop into 
a new bulb, If these scales are placed into a light sandy compost, in an 
upright position, a little beneath the surface, in pots or boxes, with the soil 
pressed compactly about them, in a greenhouse or warm place in the 
dwelling, and kept moderately watered, they will in the course of a month 
or two form small bulbs. The best time for this work is during the latter 
part of winter. When warm weather arrives in May these pots or boxes 
may be sunk in open ground without disturbing the new bulbs. On the 
arrival of winter, cover the whole with three or four inches of leaves. In 
the spring they may be planted separately, and in a year or two will make 
flowering bulbs. This is substantially the process adopted by Peter Hen¬ 
derson and other florists for propagating by scales. 

A simpler mode is to take up the roots in autumn, and pack them close 
in a bed, covering with a few inches of leaves. Take them up in the 
spring, and remove the small bulbs surrounding the stem and imbeded in 
the mass of fibres; plant them and they will soon form good bulbs for 
flowering. This is the easiest and simplest way to increase lilies. 

HOUSE-PLANTS— Hints about.— The best temperature for house- 
plants is from 48 degrees at night to 70 degrees during the day. Give air 
on every warm, sunny day. If your plants should at any time get nipped 
with frost, shower them with very cold water, and keep them in the shade 
for a day or two. Furnace heat is the worst for plants, and that from a 
wood stove the best. Keep the air moist—a pan of water kept on the 
stove, or a damp towel hung on the register, will do this. 

Water thoroughly, but not too often. Shower all smooth-leaved 
plants frequently. Wash the leaves of English ivy with clean cold water 
and a sponge—nothing else. Use water of the same temperature as the 
room. The oleander, calla and hydrangea may have water standing in the 
saucers under the pot. Vines should be watered more frequently than 
other plants. 

A few drops of ammonia added to a pail of water, and applied once a 
week, will prevent the earth in the pots from getting sour. In giving 
liquid manure, a heaping tablespoonful stirred into a pail of water is 
enough. To kill the green fly or plant louse—smoke the plants with 
tobacco Very weak lime-water will kill worms in the pots. Red spiders 
may be gotten rid of by frequently wetting the foliage and keeping the 
atmosphere moist. A pinch of flour of sulphur, sprinkled now and then 
on the leaves, will keep off mildew. If the scaly-bug attacks your callas, 
oleanders, and the stems of your rose bushes, exercise your patience by 
picking off the insects, and wash the affected parts afterwards with weak 


256 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


soapsuds. The mealy-bug, which looks like little more than a bit of dirt, 
must, like the scaly-bug, be removed by hand-picking. 

PLANTS IN ROOMS.—Those who have experienced the hardships of 
cultivating green-house plants in rooms, will appreciate a few words on the 
subject. They have met drawbacks, one of which is the dryness of the 
air, and another, liability to become coated with dust. The first is greatly 
increased by the heat of the stove, and there seems to the experimentive 
party no way to overcome these obstructions. But few plants live, as but 
few plants will endure for a long time in a common living-room. To obvi¬ 
ate these difficulties, the Ward case has been constructed, and consists 
essentially in covering the plants with glass; of course this protects them 
from dust, at the same time confines the moisture which is constantly ex¬ 
haled by the leaves, gives them a humid atmosphere. It also, in a measure, 
equalizes the temperature, and shields the plants from sudden changes 
which often occur in rooms. These 
reasons are sufficient to diminish the 
care of plants, and make their suc¬ 
cess more sure. 

Fig. 288 represents the section of 
a small and simple case—made by 
covering a cast-iron vase of plants 
with a large bell-glass. Fig. 289 is 
a cast-iron basket of plants, without 
glass cover. 

A simple and cheap form of construction is fig. 291, 
which is made of wood and covered with window sash. If well constructed 
and kept neatly, it makes quite an ornament. If kept 
in a room subject to occasional cold below freezing, 
the proper temperature may be maintained by the fol¬ 
lowing simple andc heap contrivance: Place the pots 
on an iron or copper tray (the pots being supported, 
if heavy, by iron bars) beneath which is soldered a 
convex round piece of sheet copper, so as to form a 




Fig. 289. 


mssmsm 



Fig. 291. 


flat boiler beneath the tray. A tube through the tray above admits filling 
the boiler and allows the escape of the steam; a small tube and cock 
below allows the water to be drawn off. A lamp placed under the boiler, 
heats the water, and by this means, the plants are kept sufficiently warm. 

ROSE CUTTINGS.—One of the best methods of securing the success 

of these, is to stick the cutting about an inch deep into clean river sand_ 

with properly prepared soil about an inch below to receive the roots as soon 
as they strike. The clean sand prevents the roots from rotting. A cor- 









FLORICULTURE. 


257- 


respondent of the Horticulturist succeeded with this when every other mode 
failed, and says he does not lose one in twenty. 

AQUARIUM.—(Fig. 292.) An interesting ornament for a library or 

cabinet, is a water-tight glass case, sup¬ 
plied with water plants and fish. The 
water plants alone will not flourish, and 
the water becomes coated with green 
slime; but the addition of minute shell- 
292 fish and other small aquatic animals,, 

renders the water clear, and each causes the other to thrive. Some skill 
and experience are necessary to adjust the proper number or quantity of 
each, for their best success. 



TRELLIS FOR FLOWER POTS.—A neat trellis for flower pots con¬ 
tributes to the neat appearance and to the ornamental effect of the plants.. 

The accompanying cut represents a form manufac¬ 
tured of reeds instead of wire, being lighter, equally 
durable, and retaining the shape better. They are 
usually painted green, but perhaps a rich brown would 
appear better for many plants. Fig. 293 has a 30- 
inch stick, is 10 inches wide. Fig. 294 has a 24-inch 
stick and is 14 inches wide. Fig. 295 is taller, and 
is suitable for placing near the centre of a group of 
31. feet high, and 14 inches wide. These supports are 



Figs. 294, 295, 293. 
pots. The stick is 


sold at from thirty to sixty cents each. 
















Hunting and Fishing. 


BIRD LIME.—i. The middle bark of the holly, any quantity; boil it 
for seven or eight hours in water, or until it is soft and tender, then drain 
the water off, and place it in pits under ground, surrounded with stones; 
let it remain to ferment, and water it if required until it passes into a muci¬ 
laginous state. Then pound it well and wash it in several waters, next leave 
it for four or five days to ferment and purify itself. 

2. Linseed oil boiled and burned down to a thick varnish answers even 
better than the above. In preparing it the oil is put into an iron kettle 
and set upon a fire, when warm it is lighted also and allowed to burn until 
it is of the desired thickness. The iron pot should not be over one-third 
full of oil, and should have a lid to fit pretty closely by which the oil can 
be quenched at will. From time to time this must be done to ascertain 
the condition of the oil. It takes from nine to ten hours to boil it down, 
and when done it should be put away in a vessel as nearly air-tight as pos¬ 
sible, otherwise it will continue to grow thicker and thicker until it becomes 
unusable. It should be of the consistency of thick syrup. 

BIRD LIME—How to use.— There are various methods of using it. 
It can be either employed on sticks made for the purpose, by which means 
there is not so much loss of bird lime, or plastered on spots to which the 
birds are accustomed to come. If used in the former way, holes must be 
bored into the tree in which to fix the limed sticks. Birds taken with lime 
should be relieved as soon as caught, or they will flutter themselves to 
death. Alcohol will wash off the lime. But take care in applying it; small 
birds can be killed with the smell of alcohol. If their heads are not limed, 
cover that part of them with a silk handkerchief and use a sponge to wash 
off the lime. 

FOXES—To trap.— The trap should be well smeared with blood, or 
beeswax, to destroy the odor of the iron. Set it in soft earth, packing moss 
or leaves around the pans and jaws. Bait with fried meat. The trap 
should be a small-sized double-spring, and should be fastened to a clog, 
light enough for the fox to drag, but heavy enough so that he cannot get 
too far away ; though if there is snow on the ground, there will be no diffi¬ 
culty in finding him if he goes some distance. He may be caught the first 

259 


2 6o 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


night, but more likely than not will dig out your trap, and you will have to 
try several times before you are smart enough to catch him. 

GOPHER TRAP—How to make. —Take a hard piece of wood, about 
nine inches long, and turn it so that one end will be two and a half inches 
in diameter, and the other end three inches, gradually sloping from one end 
to the other. With a two-inch auger bore a hole in the small end eight 
inches deep. Then take a fine-toothed rip saw and split it open from end 
to end in two equal parts. In one of these halves a spring door is fixed, 
made of sheet-iron, which is round like the opening and curved to fit down 
in the half. This is made fast on a hinge near the entrance, with a spring 
under it sufficient to raise it to a perpendicular, the hinge so arranged that 
it can only be raised to a perpendicular. Another piece of sheet-iron, 
made round to move easily in the two-inch opening, is made which is 
attached to a long, narrow strip of iron, which strip moves easily under two 
staples in the bottom of the half to which the door is fastened. 

In order to set the trap the door is pressed down, and the end of this 
strip projects over it and thus holds the door open. Then take the two 
halves and put them together, and slip over them a thin wide ring, made 
sloping like the trap, and it is ready for use. 

With this trap you go out where the gopher is at work, and find his last 
made hillock, and if it is not quite finished, all you have to do is to stick 
the trap in the hole, open end downward, and in a short time he will bring 
up his load of dirt, and, in pressing against the upper piece of iron, he will 
push the strip of iron from over the door, when the spring will lift it up and 
shut him in. 

GOPHERS—To trap. —Go where they work; find the last mound made; 
open the hole, set in a common spring trap, cover with a little light sand; 
leave the hole open. The gopher will come to close the hole, and get 
trapped. 

MINK—To trap. —For mink the trap should be set near some stream. 
If their holes cannot be found make one. Set the trap in the cavity, three 
sides of which should be barricaded with stones, bark or any equivalent 
substance. Place the bait at the farther extremity of the cavity, beyond 
the trap. Bait with any kind of fresh meat.; muskrat meat is good, but 
fish, either fresh or stale, is better. Bait should be smoked in cold weather 
to give it a stronger smell. The best scent for attracting mink is prepared 
from the decomposition of minnows, eels or trout. Cut the fish into small 
pieces; put into a bottle, cork loosely, and let it hang in the sunshine two 
or three weeks in the summer. A few drops of this on the bait, or on a 
stick near the trap, will draw mink a long distance. 

MOLES—To destroy. —There are several mole traps in market that 


HUNTING AND FISHING. 


26l 

work well, provided the moles can be induced to go where they will 
be caught. In addition to the traps, set men to watching the moles 
during light showers in summer, at which time they are more active, and 
when one is found moving he is to be dug out and killed. More moles 
have been caught in this way than with all the traps used. Poisons of 
various kinds have been recommended, but on trial they have proved 
worthless. 

MUSKRATS.— Home-made traps for. —A trap, equal, if not better 
than a steel trap, is an old barrel. Sink it near the bank of the ditch, where 
there are evidences of the presence of the animals, to the level of the 
ground, and half fill it with water. Put in a couple of shingles, or light 
strips of boards, to float on the water. Place sweet apples or carrots, cut 
in small bits, in the runs of the muskrats, and toll them to the barrel. Put 
several pieces upon the floats inside. The rats will jump in after their food, 
and will not be able to get out. Where there are plenty, several muskrats 
may be taken in a night by this simple trap. It costs nothing but labor, can 
be visited at one’s convenience, and there is plenty of room in it for a 
dozen or more at once. 

MUSKRATS—To catch without traps. —It is a mystery to many how 
muskrats, beavers, and other animals, are able to stay so long under water, 
apparently without breathing, especially in winter. The way they manage 
is, they take in a good breath at starting, and then remain under water as 
long as possible. They then rise up to the ice and breathe out the air in 
their lungs, which remains in a bubble against the lower part of the ice. 
The water near the ice is highly charged with oxygen, which it readily 
imparts to the air breathed out. After a time, this air is taken back in the 
lungs, and the animal again goes under the water, repeating this process 
from time to time. In this way, they can travel almost any distance, and 
live almost any time under the ice. The hunter takes advantage of this 
habit of the muskrat in the following manner: When the marshes and 
ponds where the muskrat abounds are first frozen over, and the ice is thin 
and clear, on striking into their houses with his hatchet, for the purpose of 
setting his trap, he frequently sees a whole family plunge into the water 
and swim away under the ice. Following one for some distance, he sees 
him come up to recover his breath, in the manner above described. After 
the animal has breathed against the ice, and before he has time to take his 
bubble in again, the hunter strikes with his hatchet directly over him, and 
drives him away from his breath. In this case he drowns in swimming a 
few rods, and the hunter, cutting a hole in the ice, takes him out. 

Opossums — Traps for. —The traps for opossums are the same as for 
rabbits. 


262 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


QUAILS— Traps for. —You can use any kind of a coop, supported by 
a figure 4. Sprinkle straw and grain under the coop, especially if snow is 
on the ground; the inviting appearance of the same will induce the birds to 
go under the coop, and in running about they will strike the spindle of the 
figure which lets the trap down, effectually cooping all that are under it at 
the time. 

PRAIRIE HENS— Traps for.- Same as for quails. 

RABBITS—To trap. —Take brass wire and make a noose sufficiently 
large for the rabbit to get his head therein; then trim a small tree near their 
path, fasten the wire to the top, bend over and fasten by a notch to a peg 
driven in the ground; then make a fence or wall of fine brush a little across 
their path, leaving a hole to hang the wire in. Some use a strong cord 
instead of wire, but that is liable to break. Some also use box-traps, baited 
with sweet apple or onion, and we think the last to be the best. Some also 
use a steel trap, laid in the road and fastened. 

RACCOONS—To catch.— The best, and we might say the surest way 
to catch a raccoon, is with a good cur dog, one that knows how to keep 
quiet while on the track, but will bark at the tree. But if you wish to trap 
them with a steel trap, go to a swamp, and, after finding an old log, set 
your trap on the log, and then find two old limbs, and place one on each 
side of the log over the trap, crossing at the top in the form of an X, so 
that the coon in crossing the log will be compelled to go under them and 
over the trap. Bait the trap, if you choose, with frogs or chicken. But 
whether you bait or not, the coon is sure to “ run ” the old log, if he comes 
in the neighborhood. On the same plan you can set a dead-fall. 

SKUNKS—To trap.— Get an old barrel and place it on the side of a 
triangular stick of wood, about six inches high, fastening the bait on the 
bottom of the barrel. When the skunk goes for the bait, as soon as he 
passes the centre, the barrel turns up with the skunk, without any scent. 
Then take it by the tail and do with it as you please. Great care must be 
taken in placing the barrel, that it will not be too high, as it might throw 
over, and not remain upright. The more skunks you catch in the same 
barrel, the better the trap. 

SNARES.—Snares are not very certain, but they are little trouble to 
make. They must be set in the paths or runs of the birds it is intended to 
take. They are of horse hair or thin copper wire tied in a running knot. 
The tendency of every bird when it finds itself touched about the head is to 
push forward. This draws the knot tighter until the bird kills itself. 

SNIPES—To shoot.— The first sight is the best. Not a moment should 
be lost in hesitating after you have drawn a sight, but pull the trigger at 
once. In cross-shots, fire well before your bird. Differing from the usual 


HUNTING AND FISHING. 


263 

practice, you should always walk down wind; the cause for this is, that the 
snipe always rises against it. If there is much wind, your only chance is, 
to “ down with them ” as soon as they rise from the ground. 

SQUIRRELS—To trap.— To trap squirrels, place a steel trap on the 
upper rail of a fence where they usually frequent; set a pole with an ear 
of corn, or some other squirrel food, fastened on the end thereof, up against 
the fence, leaving it in such a position as to spring the bate over the trap 
at the height of six or eight inches ; when the squirrel reaches to get the 
bate he will get into the trap. 

TRAP —For mink, weasels, skunks, etc.— Take boards one-half inch 
thick, and take a box the two sides and top twelve inches long y 
with one end closed; the size of the box inside being four inches 
square. A steel spring is fastened in the closed end of the box, to 
which is fastened a square ring at its extremity, through which the game 
thrusts its head to reach the bait at one end of a catch, which holds the 
ring depressed and held by a wire running from the front end of the trap 
to the catch on the upper extremity of the bait hook. One who has tried 
it extensively says: “ This is the best trap for skunks in the world. I believe. 
I have used many different kinds, but none work so well as this.” You can 
put it at the hole in a wall or fence. 

TRAP— Dead fall. —The simplest dead fall is made with one log, heavy 
enough to hold any creature which it is proposed to trap. Cut a knotch 
into a stump, or drive a short stake with a knotch in it, or fasten the log 
with a withe to a stake or sapling, or in any case allow it a hinge-like motion. 
This is done with the log lying on the ground. Raise one end and sup¬ 
port it upon the figure four, baited of course (see discretion hereafter). 
The bait stick of the figure four must be at right angles with the log, and 
enclosed with stakes or otherwise to allow the animal to approach only 
from one side, and obliging it to land across the line in which the log 
would fall. Another way is to arrange two logs, one to fall on the other in 
the same way. Stakes may be driven at the side, if found necessary, to 
insure one log falling on the top of the other. 

TRAPS— Setting.— The first thing to secure in setting your trap, is that 
the animal will go to it; second, that it shall catch him when he comes ; and 
last that he shall not be able to get away when once caught. Next it is 
necessary always to smoke the trap in burning hemlock, cedar or juniper 
boughs, dipped in the blood of pigs that have just been killed, or letting 
the blood of a chicken run over it, dipping it in melted fat or rubbing it 
while warm with a ball of bees-wax. But remember that in baiting a rabbit 
trap your hands must never be greasy; there is nothing a rabbit will so 
quickly avoid as grease of any kind. 


264 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Now having arranged this, your next business must be to induce your 
animal not to be shy. If you are carrying on trapping in wild woods the 
surrounding scenery is generally wild enough, but near at home, on the 
farm, care must be taken to take away the appearance of preparation, and 
yet preparation must be made. A cautious animal, such as a fox or rac¬ 
coon, should be invited to come several times before the trap is set; arrange 
a place with sawdust, hay-seed, chaff, and chicken feathers, several inches 
deep, scatter through it food adapted to the animal intended to be caught, 
offal of chickens, bones, and bits of waste meat, fish heads, etc., if for fox; 
nubbins of corn, etc., for coon, leave it and when you have certain indica¬ 
tions, set your trap (free from the iron smell) and cover with the material 
you have used, scattering bits of food therein as before, the creature you 
are after, will probably be there the next morning, if you have properly se¬ 
cured your trap. Another way is to set your trap under water two or three 
inches with the bait above it, hung upon a sapling or spile so as to make 
the animal stand upon the trap to get it, or to plant your trap well covered 
at the foot of an old stump, by the side of a sapling, by the side of a barn, 
hay-stack, smoke-house, pig pen, but always covering the trap and hanging 
the bait above it, so as to make the animal step into it. 

Last of all, you must secure the trap by a weight of wood or metal, by a 
bent sapling that pulls it up into the air, or by a weight or stick that will pull it 
into the water and drown the game. A short light chain ought to be attached 
to every trap of iron, as animals gnaw with ease through anything like rope 
or hide. If you are catching animals only to get rid of a nuisance, the 
spring is necessary, but if for fur, you want to hoist the land animals into the 
air where they cannot damage themselves, and if water animals, you want 
to drown them quickly; the former result is attained by bending over a sap¬ 
ling with a stout cord attached, containing the bait, a portion of the cord 
continues down to the trap and is fastened slightly by a notched peg driven 
into the ground; when the animal is caught its struggles free the cord, and 
the sapling springs back and hoists it into the air. If your trap is set in 
water it may be fastened by a ring at the end of the chain to a pole running 
out into deep water, the pole should be fastened into its position and securely 
anchored, or the whole thing may be rolled far down the stream when you 
■come to look for it; the struggles of the animal caught cause the ring to go 
farther and farther down the stick and the weight of the trap finally drowns 
the animal. 

TRAPPERS— Hints to.— The skins of animals trapped are always 
valued higher than those shot, as shot not only make holes, but frequently 
plow along the skin making furrows as well as shaving off the fur. To 
realize the highest price for skins, they must be taken care of, and also 
.cleaned and prepared properly. 


HUNTING AND FISHING. 265 

1. Be careful to visit your traps often enough so that the skin will not 
have time to get tainted. 

2. As soon as possible after the animal is dead and dry, attend to the 
skinning and curing. 

3. Scrape off all superfluous flesh and fat, and be careful not to go so 
deep as to cut the fibre of the skin. 

4. Never dry a skin by the fire, but in a cool shady place, sheltered from 
rain. 

5. Never use preparations of any kind in curing skins, nor ever wash 
them in water, but simply stretch and dry as they are taken from the animal. 

WILD PIGEONS—To trap. —Wild pigeons can often be caught by the 
hundreds, and in fact we have known an entire flock to be captured at one 
time in this simple manner: Secure a number of pigeons, say a half 
dozen; then take a net, as large a one as you can command. Drive 
some pegs in the ground, and to them fasten one end of the net; 
then stretch the net, and raise the other end by means of poles, 
about six feet in length (one at each end of the two corners,) to which 
fasten a rope, the same to be about one hundred yards long, stretch¬ 
ing to some hidden spot, about that distance from the net. Under 
the seine sprinkle straw and a large quantity of buck-wheat. In the top 
of the poles which hold the seine up, make a hole, through pass four 
strings, about two hundred yards long, one end to be fastened to the 
leg of each pigeon, the other end to be in your possession, in your hiding 
place. In the straw beneath the seine place two pigeons, tied to a small 
peg, so that they cannot raise themselves from the ground. When a flock 
of pigeons are near, throw the four pigeons you have tied to ends of the 
four strings, and as they fly up, gently pull them back. The flock in the 
meantime has had their attention attracted. The four pigeons have been 
pulled back to their place near the seine, and soon after alighting, the flock 
will also alight. Watch your chance and when the flock is directly along¬ 
side the seine, give the rope a pull. It will cover them in a moment and 
many times you will succeed in taking the entire flock. 

WILD TURKEY—To trap. —First dig a ditch; then over one end 
build a rude structure of logs, covered at the top with earth. This structure 
should be closed sufficiently to keep the birds in. Scatter Indian corn 
about and m the ditch, and also on the inside of the pen. The turkeys fol¬ 
low up the corn in the ditch, and emerge from it on the inside. Once there, 
the turkey never thinks about descending into the ditch, but walks around 
and around the pen looking for a hole to escape through. To make the 
trap more sure, end the ditch about the middle of the pen, and build over 


266 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


the ditch a bridge of grass, sticks and earth, just inside the pen, and close 
to the logs. 

FISHING— Baits for. —An earth-worm is naturally the first bait the 
young angler looks out for; it is always to be had, is put on the hook with¬ 
out difficulty, and may always be used for certain kinds of fish, with the 
certainty of hooking something, if proper patience is used. When baiting 
with a worm, the hook should be put in close to the top of the worm’s 
head, and then passed carefully down, gently working the worm up the hook 
at the same time. Not more than a quarter of an inch of the worm should 
be left hanging over the hook. To scour or starve these worms, and get 
rid of the earthy matter they contain, they must be placed in damp moss,, 
not soddened with water, but only damp. In creeping through the fibers 
of the moss, they compress and empty themselves. 

The ash-grub, which is found in the rotten bark of a tree that has been 
felled some time, is an excellent bait for all small “ pan ” fish, such as chub, 
sun-fish, perch, etc., and may be used all the year round; it should be kept in 
wheat bran. All grubs or worms make good bait for little fresh water fish. 

Grasshoppers are good baits during June, July, and August; their legs 
and wings must be taken off before they are put on the hook. 

Shrimp are good for bass, tom cod, and lafayette fish. Crab and clam 
are good bait for these also, shedder craw especially. 

FISHING— With artificial fly.— Artificial fly fishing consists in the 
use of imitations of these flies, and is unquestionably the most scientific 
mode of angling, requiring great tact and practice to make the flies with 
neatness and to use them successfully, and calling forth as it does so much 
more skill than the ordinary method of bottom fishing, it merits its superior 
reputation. It possesses many advantages over bottom fishing, but at the 
same time it has its disadvantages; it is much more cleanly in its preparations, 
inasmuch as it does not require the angler to grub for clay and work up a 
quantity of ground baits, and is not so toilsome in its practice, for the only 
encumbrances which the fly fisher has are simply a light rod, a book of 
flies, and whatever fish he may chance to catch ; but there are several 
kinds of fish which will not rise at a fly, and even those that do will not be 
lured from their quiet retreat during very wet or cold weather. It would 
be as well if the young angler could go out for some little time with an old 
experienced hand, to observe and imitate his movements as closely as pos¬ 
sible ; but as many of our readers will not, in all probability, be able to 
enjoy such an advantage, we subjoin some instructions by which they may 
pursue this interesting branch of angling. 

FISHING— Ground bait for.— Ground baiting is a most essential 
part of angling, and ought never to be omitted, as success in bottom or 


HUNTING AND FISHING. 


267 


float fishing cannot be expected, unless the proper means for drawing the 
fish together are resorted to. The object for throwing bait into the water, is 
to collect fish to one particular spot, and then to use a superior kind of bait, 
though of a similar kind, on the hook. Thus, if going to angle with earth 
worms, throw in for ground bait those that are unscoured, and fish with those 
that are well scoured. 

For small creek fish, mix bran and clay together into lumps about the 
size of an apple ; place some grubs in the middle, and close the clay over 
them. It is a very useful bait in a still pond, hole, or slight eddy. 

Or take the crumbs of white bread, soak it in water, squeeze it almost 
dry, add bran, and work them together until they acquire the consistency 
of clay. 

Brewer’s grains will also be found very serviceable ; they must be per¬ 
fectly fresh. 

Grubs, worms, the toughest parts of crabs, lobsters, or clams, may be 
thrown in without taking the trouble of working them into balls of clay, if 
the water is perfectly still; but if you are fishing in a stream, such a system 
of ground baiting is injurious, as they are carried away by the stream, and 
draw the fish from the spot. 

FISH— Charms, or secret art of catching. —The following secret 
arts are given to gratify curiosity on the subject, but, of course, we give 
them without recommendation. Some of these “ secrets ” are as follows: 

1. For bait, take a handful of swamp-apple blossoms; put them in a 
glass jar or bottle, together with a gill of rum; cork the bottle tight and 
let it stand in the sun for three or four hours; then take half a pint of 
water that is found in places where grows the plant commonly termed fly¬ 
trap. This plant, the botanical name of which is dionoza muscipula , vege¬ 
tates in quag moss around fresh ponds. 

2. Saturate your bait with the liquid two or three hours before using. 
The liquid should be kept in a wooden or earthen vessel. 

3. Another is to put the oil of Rhodium on the bait when fishing with a 
hook, and you will always succeed; or take the juice of smallage or lovage, 
and mix with any kind of bait. As long as there remains any kind of fish 
within many yards of your hook, you will find yourself busy pulling them 
out. 

4. Get over the water after dark, with a light and a dead fish that has 
been smeared with the juice of stinking galdwin. The fish will gather 
around you in large quantities, and can easily be scooped up. 

5. Or, take Cocculus Indicus, pulverize and mix with dough, then scatter 
it broadcast over the water. The fish will greedily seize it and immediately 
turn belly up on top of the water. Gather immediately, put in fresh water^ 
and they revive. This is the Chinese method. 


268 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


FISHING— Floats. —A very light float should be used for trout if you 
use any at all. It is made from quills or cork. For pickerel, salmon, bass, 
etc., you should get floats made from hollow red cedar, which are very 
light and appropriate. Cork will answer if you cannot procure cedar. 

FISH-HOOKS—How to fasten to line. —When fastening the hooks 
on your lines, use strong but fine silk, and if you can get it near the color of 
your bait, so much the better; wax the silk thoroughly with shoemaker’s 
wax, and wrap it four or five times round the body of the hook, then place 
the gut or hair on the inside of your hook, and continue winding the silk 
tightly round till you have wrapped it about three parts down the hook. 

Whipping is finished off by slipping the end of the silk through the last 
circle, and drawing it tight. Knotting, by laying two pieces of gut or hair 
together, one overlapping the other some three inches or so, then holding 
one end in the left hand, while forming a simple slip knot on it; then turn¬ 
ing the other end to the right, and doing the same; after that drawing the 
two together, when the knot is complete. No direct pull will ever unloosen 
this water knot, though it can be undone easily. Gut is obtained from the 
silk-worm. Gimp is any kind of tackle covered with fine brass wire, to pro¬ 
tect it from the teeth of fish, sharp stones, or other injury. 

FISHING— Hooks. —The old Kirby hook is now generally superseded 
by the Limerick, which is considered the best fish-hook made. You should 
examine the point and barb of each hook to see that it is perfect, and file it 
if it is not. Always have a small file with you. 

FISHING— Lines. —Lines are made of India grass, of silk alone, silk 
and hair, of hemp, of flax, and of cotton. Gut lines are also made, but • 
not easily managed. The best trout lines are made of India grass, though 
silk, or silk and hair, are frequently used in trout fishing. Trout lines are 
usually from eight to eighteen yards long, and of various degrees of fine¬ 
ness, according to the size of the fish angled for, or clearness of the stream. 
Salmon, bass, and pickerel lines are made from hemp, flax, silk, grass or hair, 
and vary in length from thirty to one hundred and fifty yards. Cotton and 
hemp lines are made for trolling purposes, and for fishing sea-fish generally. 
The length of these will vary according to the condition or depth of your 
fishing grounds. The size of all lines should vary according to the state of 
the streams or size of your fish. Clear streams require as small lines as 
will answer the purpose. If you have a good multiplying reel, the line 
should be as long as the reel will carry. 

FISHING— Reels. —Some sportsmen do not consider reels necessary; 
but this is because they have either never used them, or never had a good 
article. American-made reels are now considered the best in the market, 
particularly for taking large fish. The smaller English reel will do very 


HUNTING AND FISHING. 


269 

well for trout fishing. There are two kinds, viz: The plain reel and the 
multiplying reel. Some prefer the former; but the multiplying reel 
saves a good deal of time, and is easily worked when you get accustomed 
to it. Reels are made of brass and German silver. One is as good as the 
other. 

FISHING— Rods. —Fishing rods are now usually made from the bam¬ 
boo, the Calcutta reed, or of ash wood, as it is necessary they should be 
made light, tough, and pliable. The butts are frequently made of maple, 
with bored bottom; and this butt will outlast several tops. Rods for travel¬ 
ers are made in joints, so as to be easily transported. The cost of rods at the 
tackle stores is fifty cents up to five dollars for ordinary ones; and ten, fif¬ 
teen, twenty and even as high as fifty dollars for the best and most scien¬ 
tific articles. Some of them are made to be used as walking-canes until 
needed for sport. A perfect rod should gradually taper from end to end 
be tight in all its joints, and be equally and uniformly pliable, not bending 
in one place more than another. The different lengths of rods required in 
fishing vary from twelve to twenty feet in length. 

FISHING— Paste baits for. —Take some old cheese and the crumb of 
white bread, and mix them up to a tolerable degree of consistency, and you 
will make a good bait for chub. Knead crumbs of white bread dipped in 
honey in the palm of your hand until they attain a fair degree of consist¬ 
ency ; it is good for small fish. Procure some new wheat, remove the husks,, 
and afterward pound it; then pour some milk or water over, and gently 
simmer the composition; when cold it will be somewhat like a jelly, and a. 
very small piece only should be put on the hook. 

Paste baits are not at all adapted for swift-running streams, but for quiet 
brooks, ponds, or very still rivers; you must be sharp of eye, and quick to 
strike, otherwise both fish and bait will give you the slip. A quill float is 
better than a cork one when baiting with paste, as it betrays the slightest 
nibble. 



Painting and Tanning. 


PAINT.—It is always convenient to have paint at hand for doing small 
jobs. If kept in common paint pots, it soon dries. An empty fruit jar with 
a close fitting cork answers an excellent purpose; and if the handle of the 
brush is short, so as to go inside, it is always ready without washing. Putty 
always ready for use may be kept in the same way. 

PAINT —Materials for making. —Any substance that will become dry, 
after it is applied to the surface of wood or iron, and which will form a thin 
pellicle, or blanket, that will exclude water, will make good paint. 

Linseed oil is of such a nature that it will soon dry, when spread out thin, 
and will form a thin cover that will exclude water. For this reason, there is 
no other kind of oil that is equal to linseed oil, for painting. 

There is so much grease, or oleaginous substance, in lamp oil, kerosene, 
and sweet oil, that they will not dry like linseed oil. For this reason such 
oils are not good for painting. 

Paint is mingled with oil, for the purpose of keeping the oil as much on 
the surface as possible, and for making a thicker and heavier coat, or pelli¬ 
cle, which will resist the action of the atmosphere, or the influences of wet 
and dry. 

OIL —Drying and Boiled.— Linseed oil is mixed with powdered litharge, 
and heated until it becomes thick. A pale drying oil is obtained by mixing 
with linseed oil sufficient dry sulphate of lead to form a milky liquid, and 
shaking it repeatedly for some days, letting it stand exposed to the light. 
When it becomes quite clear it may be poured off from the dregs. The 
sulphate of lead, when washed from the mucilage, may be again used for 
the same purpose. Liebig directs one pound of acetate of lead to be dis¬ 
solved in half a gallon of rain water, and one pound of finely powdered 
litharge added. The mixture is either boiled, or exposed for a longer time 
to a moderate heat, and frequently stirred, till no more particles of litharge 
can be seen. A white deposit is formed, which may be left in the liquid or 
separated by filtration; twenty pounds of linseed oil, in which one pound of 
levigated litharge has been diffused, are gradually added to the lead solu¬ 
tion, previously diluted with an equal bulk of water, and the mixture fre¬ 
quently stirred. It is then left to clear itself in a warm place; but to obtain 
it bright it must be filtered through a coarse paper or cotton. It may be 
bleached by exposure to the sun. The lead solution which subsides from 

271 


272 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


the mixture may be filtered and used again, after dissolving it in one pound 
of litharge as before. The oxide of lead contained in the oil may be re¬ 
moved from it by agitating it with diluted sulphuric acid, and letting it stand 
to settle. 

Lacker or laquer.— This substance is a liquid drier, and will make 
a good paint when used alone, without any oil. But it is rather expensive 
for such a purpose, when used alone. Therefore, we mingle it with oil for 
the purpose of making a better paint, and for making the oil or paint dry 
more readily. 

The more laquer we put into paint the sooner it will dry. Laquer is 
used in mixing all kinds of paint. Varnish will make a good laquer, but 
is expensive. 

As some laquer is better than others, all that is necessary to use it eco¬ 
nomically is the exercise of a little good common sense. 

PAINT —Making white.— If the white lead, or zinc white, has been 
ground fine, as it always should be before it is used, mingle boiled oil 
enough with it to make it about of the consistence of thick cream. Then 
pour in laquer enough to make it thin enough to spread readily with a brush. 
Good paint will always show for itself when it is just thick enough to flow well. 

We usually make white paint, and then obtain any other desired color by 
mingling paint of other color with the white. I refer to ordinary paint¬ 
ing. White lead will form a good body of paint so much cheaper than 
blue or green, or some kinds of yellow, that we use it in preference to 
making a paint of a given kind that is very expensive. 

PAINT —White.— The white destined for varnish or oil requires a 
metallic oxide, which gives more body to the color. Take ceruse, reduced 
to powder, and grind it with oil of pinks, and one-fourth ounce of sulphate 
of zinc for each pound of oil. Apply the second coating without the sul¬ 
phate of zinc, and suffer it to dry. Cover the whole with a stratum of san- 
darac varnish. This color is durable, brilliant and agreeable to the eye. 

Boiled linseed oil might be employed instead of oil of pinks, but the 
color of it would in some degree injure the purity of the white. 

PAINTS —Lead color.— Whiting, one hundred weight; blue black, 
seven pounds ; white lead (ground in oil,) twenty-eight pounds ; road dust> 
fifty-six pounds; lime-water, five gallons ; prepared residue oil, two and 
one-half gallons. 

PAINT —Blue.— In the first place, prepare white paint, and then mingle 
blue paint with it, and stir it thoroughly until no streaks can be discovered 
in it. Then dip your brush and paint a little. If it seems too light color¬ 
ed, put in more blue until it appears dark enough. 

A small quantity of blue paint will make a large quantity of paint, if it 


PAINTING AND TANNING. 2J J. 

be prepared in this manner. Blue makes the neatest and most durable 
paint for painting tools and implements. 

PAINT— Green. —Lime-water, six gallons; whiting and road dust, of 
each, one hundred weight; blue-black, thirty pounds ; yellow ochre, twenty- 
eight pounds; wet blue (previously ground in prepared residue oil,) 
twenty pounds ; grind well together. For use, thin with equal parts of pre¬ 
pared residue oil and linseed oil. 

PALE GREEN.—Yellow ochre and wet blue, of each, one hundred 
weight; road dust, one and one-half hundred weight; blue-black, ten. 
pounds ; lime-water, six gallons ; prepared fish oil, four gallons; prepared 
residue and linseed oils, of each, seven and a-half gallons. 

PAINT— Red. —Red paint is frequently made of oil, laquer and Vene¬ 
tian red. This will make a very dull looking red, and very cheap also. 

To make red of a lighter color, make white paint as directed, and then, 
mingle red lead, or any other kind of red paint, with the white to suit the 
fancy. 

Paint is sometimes made of pure red lead, oil and laquer. But, as red 
lead is so very heavy, it is rather difficult to lay it on smoothly, unless in a 
very warm room, and unless a person has had some experience in painting. 

These directions have been prepared to aid beginners in very ordinary 
painting. 

PAINTING— Plaster of Paris and gypsum in. —Plaster of Paris, 
when it is ground fine, will make an excellent paint for outside work. I 
have been accustomed to use it for painting buildings for several years 
past, and I find that it is far more durable than white lead or zinc white. 
My practice has been to mingle equal parts of plaster of Paris and zinc, 
or white lead, with oil enough to make it of the consistency of cream, and 
then run it through a paint mill. This will form a good white paint, having 
an excellent body, which will be far more serviceable than white lead alone.. 
And more than all this, plaster of Paris is very cheap. 

For painting roofs of buildings, I have never met with anything that is 
cheaper and better, where it is desirable to collect rain water, than gypsum 
and oil. It will form a very hard and durable covering for a roof, and is 
very clean. 

Gypsum is sometimes ground very coarse. When it is so, it should be 
run through a paint mill before it is used. 

PAINT— Care of brushes. —Turn a new brush with the hair end up 
and handle down, and open the bristles and pour in about a spoonful of 
good varnish. Allow the varnish to become dry, and the brush will never 
shed its bristles when it is used in painting. The varnish will also keep 
brushes from shrinking and falling to pieces. 


17 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


274 

Brushes are usually kept in water, to prevent their drying up; but water 
is not half as good as oil for keeping them soft and pliable. 

As soon as you have finished a job of painting, wipe out the brush clean, 
and wrap it in a piece of paper and hang it in a small deep vessel contain¬ 
ing oil, letting the brush descend into the oil up to the wrapping cord. In 
this way brushes of different colors, and even varnish brushes, can be kept 
clean and always ready for immediate use. 

It is impossible to keep brushes, and especially varnish brushes, soft and 
pliable in water. 

PAINT—To make rough smooth.— When paint has become rough by 
cracks, and when there are small seams in the wood that cannot be filled 
with putty, take a few spoonfuls of white lead (English white lead is best,) 
and mix it up with boiled oil and laquer, about as thick as it can be mixed. 
Then take a small portion of it at a time and rub it into the cracks with the 
fingers until the surface of the paint is smooth and even. Now smooth it 
off with a stiff brush, dipped in benzole or in spirits of turpentine, and let it 
dry. This is the easiest and most expeditious way to make the surface of 
rough paint smooth. 

PAINT—To make old dry.— Sometimes paint that has been laid on 
for years is yet “ sticky,” and will never become hard. Such paint is a 
source of great annoyance. 

To make it hard, so that it will not stick, apply to it with a brush, a coat 
of benzole. (See Benzole.) After a day or two, if there is a good coat 
of paint on it, go over it with a thin coat of laquer, with one-third of its 
bulk of boiled oil mingled with it. In case the coat of paint is thin, apply 
another thin coat, which has been prepared by putting in a large propor¬ 
tion of laquer. 

VARNISH—To make old dry.— Poor varnish sometimes, when applied 
to furniture, is a source of vexation. To make it dry and hard, apply a coat 
of benzole (see Benzole) or spirits of turpentine with a varnish brush in 
a warm room. After two or three days apply a coat of good varnish and 
let it dry thoroughly before using the furniture. This is a certain remedy 
for “ sticky ” varnish. 

Good varnish will always become hard in a short time; while cheap var¬ 
nish, sometimes, will not become hard in several years. 

VARNISH— The way to make it dry.— Gas tar needs no preparation, 
only for paining tools and implements. It needs something to make it dry. 
Tor this purpose, let it be warmed in an iron kettle—not boiled—and min¬ 
gle with it about one pint of benzole to one gallon of gas tar. This will 
make a beautiful black varnish, which will dry iji a few hours. If it does 
not dry quickly enough, put in a little more benzole. (See Benzole.) 


PAINTING AND TANNING. 


275 


VARNISH —Shellac, to make. —Put a quantity of shellac in a bottle 
and pour in alcohol enough to cover it. Cork it tight and place it on a 
shelf in a warm room, where the shellac will dissolve. Shake the bottle 
occasionally, and, if it is not all dissolved in three or four days, put in a 
little more alcohol. 

This forms a good varnish for varnishing almost anything, and will dry 
in half an hour. 

BENZOLE.—Benzole is a volatile and nearly transparent fluid, which 
has the appearance of spirits of turpentine. It can be obtained at most 
drug stores, at about fifty cents per gallon. 

It is frequently used as a good substitute for spirits of turpentine and is 
very much cheaper than that liquid, and for some purposes it is far more 
effective than turpentine. 

WINDOW BLINDS— The way to paint. —There is a correct rule for 
painting window blinds, in order to do it neatly and quickly. In the first 
place, nail a strip of wood an inch or two in width across the end of a bar¬ 
rel ; two barrels will make two benches for resting the blinds on. Place 
them just far enough apart so that the ends of the blinds will rest on the 
sticks on the ends of the barrels; lay the blind down flat and paint along 
the inside of the stiles and the sides of the slats near the ends; turn the 
blind on one edge, and paint the very ends of the slats, and smooth off 
the inside of the stiles and bars; now paint the slats and the adjusting rod, 
and the last thing paint the stiles and bars. 

When the paint on blinds is drying keep the slats open; and do not put 
so much paint into the sockets of the slats as to prevent their being folded 
or adjusted easily. 

PAINT— Coal tar, or tar. —We know of nothing so cheap and so 
easily applied as crude Petroleum. Put on all the wood will absorb. Cover 
the whole implement or machine with it—wood and iron both. It will 
keep iron from rusting. Do not mix anything with it. If you prefer to use 
a paint, you can get it ready for use at the painter’s. Give it time to dry. 

PAINTS— Mixing. —In mixing paints, observe that for out-door work 
you must use principally or wholly boiled oil, unless it be for the decorative 
part of houses, etc., then mix as for in-door work. For in-door work, use 
linseed oil, turpentine, and a little “ driers,” observing that the less oil, the 
less wili be the gloss, and that for “ flatted white,” etc., the color being 
ground in oil, will scarcely require any further addition of that article, as 
the object is to have it dull. The best “ driers ” are ground litharge and 
sugar of lead; the former for dark and middle tints, and the latter for light 
ones. 

PAINTING— Houses, the best time for. —The best time for painting 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


276 

the exterior of buildings, is late in autumn or during the winter. Paint 
then employed will endure twice as long as when applied in early summer, 
or in hot weather. In the former it dries slowly and becomes hard, like a 
glazed surface, not easily affected afterward by the weather, or worn off by 
the beating of storms. But in very hot weather the oil in the paint soaks 
into the wood at once, as into a sponge, leaving the lead nearly dry, and 
nearly ready to crumble off. This last difficulty, however, may be guarded 
against, though at an increased expense, by first going over the surface with 
raw oil. By painting in cold weather, one annoyance might certainly be 
escaped, namely, the collection of small flies in the fresh paint. 

PAINTS— Knots to kill.— This is a difficult job for the painter, but 
if these directions are followed, perfect satisfaction will be the result. Take 
a hot iron and press it against the knot, by which means you extract the 
pitch, after which use glue size and red lead. Another plan is gum shellac 
mixed with read lead, or guta-percha dissolved in ether. But if the work 
is a fine one, after removing the iron, scrape the pitch off with a knife, after 
which size the knot with oil size, and then lay on it a leaf of gold or silver, 
after which give it two coats. 

PAINT— Economical.— We have tried many kinds of cheap paint, 
some nearly worthless, and others of considerable value. But the best, by 
far, yet employed, is first a coat of crude petroleum, and then one or two 
coats of the Averill or some equally good paint, if there is such to be found. 
We have tried this mode of protecting wood, on several tenant houses. 
These houses were made of rough pine plank outside, neatly battened, 
studded or battened on the joints inside, and lathed and plastered on the 
studding. The roofs were covered with slate laid on felt. When the paint¬ 
ing was completed, the exterior had a handsome appearance—better than if 
painted on a planed surface. We would recommend painting on the rough 
surface for any battened or vertically boarded house, even if a large and 
handsome dwelling. 

These houses are 16 by 24 feet, with a kitchen wing 12 feet square. The 
eaves are 14 feet high, making good chamber rooms. A common laborer 
applied the petroleum with a whitewash brush—half a barrel, costing $6, 
being required for each house. The cost of applying was two dollars and 
a half—eight dollars and a half for the petroleum coat. Twelve dollars’ 
worth of the Averill paint (which is furnished by the company in New 
York, in kegs ready for the brush, and tinted, and sent in this shape by rail¬ 
road,) was sufficient for each house, three dollars more for painting, mak¬ 
ing twenty-three and a half dollars for the oiling and painting complete. 
The rough surface takes the crude oil better, and retains more paint. 
Hence one coat of the Averill mixture on the oiled surface will answer well 


PAINTING AND TANNING. 


2 77 


for a long time, when another may be added at less expense. This paint is 
particularly recommended for adhering, a few weeks only being required 
for the petroleum to dry in before the paint is applied. 

One of the houses was sided with good hemlock, making it much cheaper 
than the pine houses; but more time was required in painting the rough 
surface. It makes, however, as neat an appearance as any, and forms a 
handsome cottage when surrounded with flowering sbrubs and embroidered 
with climbers. 

PAINTING.— Every farmer has several hundred dollars invested in 
wagons, carts, machines and implements. Now how much longer would 
these all last if every crack, joint and pore, was always kept well filled 
with good oil paint ? Probably, on an average, at least one-third longer 
than if not painted, and more probably at least twice as long. A great 
deal may be done by keeping them properly housed; but they must neces¬ 
sarily be more or less exposed in use; the heat opens the cracks in summer, 
a shower often overtakes them and soaks into these cracks. The process 
is again and again repeated, and decay begins. An overstrain splits them 
wider, or breaks certain parts. They must be patched or repaired, or new 
ones purchased. The farmer who has five hundred dollars thus invested 
might save from fifty to a hundred dollars a year by keeping a pot of paint 
always on hand, and on an occasional rainy or spare day go over his machines 
and implements, and fill with paint such as need it. The pot should have a 
tight cover, so as to prevent the paint drying, which may be best accom¬ 
plished by using an earthen jar, with a large cork to fit it. Every farmer 
should keep a vessel of white lead paint—the pure article. This is the best 
for filling in cracks or joints in small tools—it is good for abrasions on the 
backs of animals, from harness or yokes—it is good for the scratches in 
horses that have to travel muddy roads—and it is good to paint the mould- 
board of a plow to prevent rust after plowing is completed. 

PAINTS AND WHITEWASH- -For barns, etc.— The following mix¬ 
tures are given in Wheeler’s new and useful work, entitled, “ Homes for the 
People,” from which some valuable hints may be derived in forming desira¬ 
ble tints: 

A cool grey, similar to what would be the tint of unpainted timber after 
a few years, may be obtained as follows: 

Indian red, half a pound; lampblack, three ounces; raw umber, half a 
pound, mixed with one hundred pounds of white lead. This color will be. 
changed by the addition of sand, which in all cases is recommended, in a 
proportion of about one quart to every hundred pounds of mixed color. 
The finest and whitest sand that the neighborhood affords should be used, 
and as its hue differs so will the tint of the paint be changed. 


278 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


This color with one-third less white is very suitable for roofs, and is a cool, 
unreflecting grey tint of great softness and beauty. 

Cream color, no. i. —A soft, pleasant tint, like that of coffee greatly di¬ 
luted with milk, is oftentimes well adapted to a building, particularly in 
regions where red sand stone or other similar objects, with such local color¬ 
ing, give a brown hue to portions of the landscape. It may be mixed as 
follows: Yellow ochre, five pounds; burnt umbre, half a pound; Indian 
red, quarter of a pound; chrome yellow, No. i, half a pound, with one 
hundred pounds of white lead. The key notes in this color are the Indian 
red and the chrome yellow, and the tone may be brghtened or lowered by 
more or less of either, as individual taste may prefer. 

No. 2.—A still more delicate tint, resembling the pure color of the caen 
stone, and well adapted for large buildings with many beaks of outlines, may 
be mixed thus: Yellow ochre, two pounds; Vandyke brown, quarter of a 
pound; Indian red, quarter of a pound; chrome yellow, No. 1, half a pound 
to every one hundred pounds of lead. 

A noted agricultural writer says that the following is an excellent receipt 
for whitewash: Take a clean barrel that will hold water; put into it a half 
bushel of quicklime, and slack it by pouring over it boiling water sufficient 
to cover it four or five inches deep, and stirring it until slacked. When quite 
slacked dissolve it in water, and add two pounds of sulphate of zinc, and 
one of common salt, and which in a few days will cause the whitewash to 
harden on the woodwork. Add sufficient water to bring it to the consistency 
of thick whitewash. If you wish to make this wash of a pleasant cream 
color, add three pounds yellow ochre. For fawn color, add four pounds 
umber, one pound Indian red, and one pound lampblack. For grey, or 
stone color, add four pounds raw umber, and two pounds lampblack. 

The color may be put on with a common whitewash brush, and will be 
found much more durable than common whitewash. 

KALSOMINING.—Take four ounces of glue, soaking the same in a 
quart of warm water from fifteen to twenty-four hours, after which add a 
pint of water; then place the vessel, either tin or thin metal containing the 
glue, in a kettle of hot water over the fire, the glue being stirred until it is 
thoroughly melted, and the solution becomes quite clear. Then put five or 
six pounds of powdered Paris white into a large pail, and add hot water 
sufficient to make the mixture to be of the consistency of cream. Then 
mix the glue-water with the same, stirring it constantly and well, after which 
paint the walls with the mixture with a common whitewash brush. 

Spread the kalsomining mixture very smoothly, and to secure this, add a 
little hot water, that is, if the mixture is too thick. These quantities are 
sufficient for two coats on a large room, say one of twenty feet square. 


PAINTING AND TANNING. 


279- 

BEAVER SKINS—To dress. —You must rip the skin the same as you 
would a sheep. Stretch it in all ways as much as possible; then it is to be 
dressed with equal parts of rock salt and alum dissolved in water and made 
about as thick as cream by stirring in coarse flour. This should be spread 
on nearly half an inch thick to be scraped off when dry and repeated if one 
time is not enough. This same process of dressing applies likewise to* 
otter skins. 

DEER SKINS —Oil dressing. —For curing deer skins, etc., take the 
green hide, as soon as removed from the animal, and grain it. This is 
done by getting a beam seven or eight inches through and six to eight feet 
long, with two legs in one end and the other resting on the ground so that 
it will stand at a steep slant. The beam should be of hard wood, should 
be clean and smooth with no ridges on it. Take a knife, the corners should 
^ be whet smooth so as not to cut the skin. Set down the upper end of the 
beam against your belly and lay on the skin, hair side down, and take off 
all the unequal substances before you turn the hair side up. Then com¬ 
mence to grain by beginning with the neck of the skin next to you, shoving 
it against the hair, holding firmly and using some strength; it will soon begin 
to go and bring a streak of grain. In this way hides are grained when 
green; when dry they have to be soaked in lime and water until mellow, 
and then treated the same as a green hide. 

BIRDS—To mount.— Lay the bird upon the table with the head to the left; 
having arranged the wings and legs to keep the bird in the right position, place 
a weight on the tail. Brush the skin of the neck with the soap, then stuff 
with the flax, taking care not to distend it. Anoint the back as far as the 
rump, stuffing it one-third of the thickness, that the wire may rest on a thick 
layer of flax. Prepare four wires. One for the back, which may be a little 
longer than the body; at about one-quarter of its length it should be 
twisted into a small ring, by the pincers, and pointed with the file at the 
extreme end; two others are to be cut somewhat longer than the legs. 
The tail wire is to be formed into an oval in size, about one-third of the 
length of the bird’s body, twisting it a short distance from the ends, that 
they may form a fork; the two prongs to be pointed and bent near enough 
together to enter the rump; the ends will be hidden under the tail, the oval 
to enter the body of the bird. The back wire being oiled, may now be 
introduced across the skull, passing into the back in the middle of the flax, 
so that the ring in this wire will be brought a little toward the anterior part, 
and can receive the extremities of each of the wires which have passed 
through the thighs and claws. 

The leg wires are introduced by making a passage through the shank 
and bone at the thigh, by piercing them with an awl the size of the wire. 


28 o 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


The wire must be passed in a straight line over the knee, and is to be 
brought to the little ring of the body wire. Both leg wires and the end of the 
back wire are to be twisted together with the pincers, and be lowered 
toward the tail. The wires thus adjusted and resting on the flax, the skin 
must be well anointed and filled to its natural dimensions. 

The body may now be sewed up with a fine glover’s needle and sewing 
silk, with what is known as ball or carpet stitch. 

If the orbits of the eye are not sufficiently plump, a little cotton may be 
added, moistened with the gum with which the artificial eyes are to be fixed. 
Give the eye a natural appearance, having the lids well rounded and brought 
over the glass. 

In fixing the bird to a standard its natural attitude should be copied as 
accurately as possible. The feet should not be too wide apart, the legs 
should be so bent at the knee-joints and the body so inclined forward that 
the root of the tail will be on an exact line with the knees. This forms the 
natural angle. The head may be inclined a little to one side. If the bill 
is likely to separate, a thread should be passed through the nostrils and tied 
beneath, until the bird is quite dry. 

The feathers should now be carefully smoothed and arranged with a 
camel’s hair brush, and the wings tied in a natural position, and the body 
should be bound with a little piece of muslin until every part is perfectly dry. 

A little paper cone may be put over the head, to keep the feathers in 
place for a few days. 

Stuffed birds should be kept free from dust, in a moderate temperature, 
out of the sun. A common bell glass will answer to cover a single speci¬ 
men or a small group. They should be frequently examined, for moths 
and insects are very apt to get into the feathers. 

Five drops of Prusic acid, on a piece of cotton placed in a case, will 
effectually destroy insects. 

LAMBSKINS—To prepare for ladies’ overcoats. —Make a strong 
suds with hot water; let them get cold, and wash the skins, squeezing them 
carefully to get out all the dirt from the wool; wash the soap out with clean 
cold water, and cover them with water for twelve hours; then hang them 
over a pole to drain; when partially dry stretch them carefully on a board, 
and when a little damp sprinkle on them an ounce each of pulverized salt¬ 
peter and alum; lay the flesh sides together, and hang in the shade for two 
or three days, turning them over every day to bring the under skin upper¬ 
most till they are perfectly dry; then scrape the flesh side till all scraps of 
flesh are removed; rub it with pumice or rotten stone and with the hands; 
then lay the cloak-pattern down on the flesh side of the skin, trace it round 
with a pencil, and cut it out with a sharp knife; overcast the edges together 


PAINTING AND TANNING. 281 

on the wrong side, and line with quilted silk. No colar, fur or trimming is 
worn with an astrachan or lambskin cloak. 

LEATHER— Oiling. —Oils should not be applied to dry leather, as they 
will invariably injure it. If you wish to oil a harness, wet it over night, cover 
it with a blanket, and in the morning it will be dry and suple; then apply 
neat’s-foot oil in small quantities, and with so much elbow grease as will 
insure its disseminating itself throughout the leather. A soft, pliant har¬ 
ness is easy to handle, and lasts longer than a neglected one. Never use 
vegetable oils on leather, and among animal oils neat’s-foot is the best. 

LEATHER—To gild or silver. —Finely powder resin, and dust it 
over the surface of the leather, then lay on the leaf, and apply (hot) the 
letters or impression you wish to transfer; lastly, dust off the loose metal 
with a cloth. The cloths used for this purpose become, in time, very val¬ 
uable, and are often sold to the refiners at a high price. 

LEATHER— Tanning. —It is often a matter of both convenience and 
economy in the household or on the farm to be able to do a little tanning; 
so we give here an approved recipe which may prove useful: Soak the skin 
or hide eight or nine days in water, then put it in lime ; take it out, and re¬ 
move the hair by rubbing it, and soak it in clear water until the lime is 
entirely out. Put one pound of alum to three of salt; dissolve in a vessel 
sufficiently large to hold the hide; soak the hide in it three or four days, 
then take it out, let it get half dry, and then beat or rub it until it becomes 
pliable. Leather prepared by this process will not do well for shoes, but 
answers for hamestrings, backhands, and various other purposes on the farm. 

MUSKRATS—To skin. —The muskrat is usually skinned by beginning 
at the head, ripping from the chin to between the fore legs, and then strip¬ 
ping the skin off over the body. When taken off in this manner the skin 
is stretched on a bent rod of tough, pliable wood. When skinned from the 
tail it is stretched on a board. 

MUSKRAT SKINS— Tanning with the fur on. —To do this success¬ 
fully, first give the skins a good washing in warm water, after which remove 
all fatty and fleshy matter. Then place the skins in a liquor to soak, pre¬ 
pared as follows: To five gallons of cold soft water add four quarts of wheat 
bran, one-fourth pint old soap, one-half ounce borax ; by adding one ounce 
sulphuric acid the soaking may be done in one-half the time. If the hides 
have not been salted, add one-half pint salt. Green hides should not be 
soaked more than eight or ten hours. Dry ones should soak till very soft. 
For tan liquor, to five gallons warm soft water, add one-fourth bushel bran ; 
stir well and let stand in a warm room till it ferments. Then add slowly 
one pound sulphuric acid; stir all the while. Muskrat hides should remain 
in about four hours; then take out and rub with a fleshing knife—(an old 


282 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


chopping knife with the edge taken off will do.) Then work it over a beam 
until entirely dry. 

RABBIT SKINS—To cure. —First lay the skin on a smooth board, 
placing the fur side under, and fasten the skin to the board with tinned 
tacks. Wash it over with a solution of salt; then dissolve one and one- 
fourth ounces alum in one-half pint of warm water, and with a sponge 
dipped in this solution, moisten the surface all over; repeat this every now 
and then for three days; when the skin is quite dry,take out the tacks, and 
rolling it loosely the wrong way, the hair inside, draw it quickly backwards 
and forwards through a large smooth ring, until it is quite soft, then roll it 
in the contrary way of the skin, and repeat the operation. Skins prepared 
thus are useful for many domestic purposes. 

RACCOON SKINS—To prepare. —The skin of the raccoon should be 
nailed to boards to dry, then treated to a paste of i ounce alum; i ounce 
salt; about J drachm sulphuric acid; 2 gills water, and a little wheat bran. 
It should when dry be scraped off with a spoon or other thing as in case of 
mink skins. To work the skin soft, instead of nailing it on boards, roll it 
up and work it soft. 

RAWHIDE—How to tan. —When the hide is first taken from the ani¬ 
mal, spread it flesh side up ; then put two parts of salt, two parts of salt¬ 
petre and alum combined—(or as much saltpetre and alum as salt)—make 
it fine; sprinkle it evenly over the surface ; roll it up, and let it lay a few 
days till dissolved. Then take off what flesh remains, and nail the skin to 
the side of a barn in the sun, or in dry weather stretch on the ground by 
driving pegs in the edges of the skin. It must be stretched tight, or there 
will be hard and ugly wrinkles you cannot get out. After drying, and the 
flesh is sufficiently off, it is fit to cut up. But to make it “ soft and pliable 
like harness leather,” put neatsfoot oil on it—fasten it up again, and let it 
remain a day or two in the sun. Then take a stick about three inches 
wide, and long enough to work with both hands, made like a wedge on the 
end, and rub out all of the oil that can be, and it is tanned with the hair on. 

Some persons say a calf skin (a deacon is better,) tanned in this way* 
and the hair taken off, and blackened, makes excellent boot leather, war¬ 
ranted not to crack. The only trouble is, it will last too long. 

Cow skins are stronger and heavier, and are sometimes only salted and 
stretched; the flesh taken off, cut into strings, braided into halters or other 
useful things—the hair shaved off with a sharp knife. To make these strips 
soft they are oiled, buried in cow manure for a few days, then rubbed and 
worked till dry. 

The skin of a white animal is not No. 1, nor a red and white, nor a black 
and white. Avoid spotted skins of any kind. Red is good; black is better. 


PAINTING AND TANNING. 


283 

For an ox whip, cut these strings about one inch wide at the top, and 
about eight or ten feet long, running to a point, with a buckskin cracker one 
inch wide and eight inches long. Hang it to a stick about the length of a 
walking cane. The stick should be the top of a little pine or cedar. You 
can crack it so it can be heard as far as one of Col. Colt’s pistols. It will 
last as long as the average county insurance companies. 

SHEEP-SKINS—To cure with the wool on.— Take a spoonful of 
alum and two of saltpetre; pulverize and mix well together, then sprinkle 
the powder on the flesh side of the skin, and lay the two flesh sides together, 
leaving the wool outside. Then fold up the skin as tight as you can, and 
hang in a dry place. In two or three days, or as soon as it is dry, take it 
down and scrape it with a blunt knife till clean and supple. This completes 
the process, and makes you a most excellent saddle cover. If, when you 
kill your mutton, you treat the skins this way, you can get more for them 
from the saddler than you can get for the wool and skin separately disposed 
otherwise. 

Other skins which you desire to cure with the fur or hair on, may be treated 
in the same way. 

SKINS— Preservatives for. —The best material for the preservation of 
skins of animals consists of powdered arsenious acid, or the common ar¬ 
senic of the shops. This may be used in two ways; either applied in dry 
powder on the moist skin, or, still better, mixed with alcohol or water to the 
consistency of molasses, and put on with a brush. Some camphor may be 
added to the alcoholic solution, and a little strychnine will undoubtedly in¬ 
crease its efficacy. There are no satisfactory substitutes for arsenic; but, 
in its entire absence, corrosive sublimate, camphor, alum, etc., may be em¬ 
ployed. Many persons prefer the arsenical soap to the pure arsenic. This 
is composed of the following ingredients: Arsenic, one ounce; white soap, 
one ounce; carbonate of potash, one dram ; water, six drams; camphor, 
two drams. Cut the soap into thin slices, and melt over a slow fire with 
the water, stirring it continually; when dissolved remove from the fire, and 
add the potash and arsenic by degrees; dissolve the camphor in a little alco¬ 
hol, and when the mixture is nearly cold, stir it in. 

The proper materials for stuffing out skins will depend much upon the size 
of the animal. For small birds and quadrupeds cotton will be found most 
convenient; for the larger, tow; for those still larger, dry grass, straw, saw¬ 
dust, bran, or other vegetable substances may be used. Whatever substance 
be used, care must be taken to have it perfectly dry. Under no circumstan¬ 
ces should animal matter, as hair, wool, or feathers, be employed. 

The bills and loral region, as well as the legs and feet of birds, and the 
ears, lips, and toes of mammals, may, as most exposed to the ravages of in- 


284 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


sects, be washed with an alcoholic solution of strychnine applied with a 
brush to the dried skin: this will be an almost certain safeguard against 
injury. 

SKUNK SKINS—To deodorize. —To deodorize skunk skins or articles 
of clothing scented, hold them over a fire of red cedar boughs, and sprinkle 
with chloride of lime; or wrap them in green hemlock boughs, when they 
are to be had, and in 24 hours they will be cleaned. 

SOAP— Arsenical. —This soap, used for preparing the skins of birds 
and other small animals, is made as follows: Two ounces each of white 
arsenic, white soap, lime slacked in air, camphor powdered, and six ounces 
of carbonate of potassa, and f ounce water, sufficient to make the whole 
into a paste. 

TANNING— Operation of. —The first operation is to soak the hide, 
as no hide can be properly tanned unless it has been soaked and broken 
on a fleshing beam. If the hide has not been salted add a little salt and 
soak it in soft water. In order to be thoroughly soaked green hides should 
remain in this liquor from nine to twelve days ; of course the time varies 
with the thickness of the hide. The following liquor is used to remove 
hair or wool, viz : 10 gallons cold water (soft,) 8 quarts slacked lime, and 
same quantity of wood ashes. Soak until the hair or wool will pull off easily. 

As it frequently happens it is desirable to cure the hide and keep the 
hair clean, the following paste should be made, viz : Equal parts of lime 
and hard wood ashes (lime should be slacked,) and made into a paste with 
soft water. This should be spread on the flesh side of the hide, and the 
skin rolled up, flesh side in, and placed in a tub, just covering it with water. 
It should remain 10 days, or until the hair will pull out easily, then scrape 
off with a knife. 

TANNING— Curriers’ paste for. —First coat, take of water, 1 pint; 
flour, 1 gill; castile soap, J ounce ; make into paste. Second coat, take of 
first paste, 1 gill; gum-tragacanth, J gill; water, J pint; mix all together. 
This will finish nine sides of upper. 

TANNING— Curriers’ skirting for. —This is for finishing skirting 
and the flesh of harness leather in imitation of oak tanning. Take of 
chrome yellow, 4 ounces ; yellow ochre, £ pound; cream of tarter, % ounce; 
soda, \ ounce; paste, 5 pints; mix well. This will finish six sides. For 
the grain to imitate oak tan. Take of chrome yellow, \ pound; yellow 
ochre, 4 ounces; cream of tartar, \ ounce; soda, \ ounce; paste 1 quart; 
spirits of turpentine, J pint; mix well. This will finish 6 sides. 

TANNING— Curriers’ size for. —Take of sizing, 1 pint; soft soap J 
gill; stuffing, J gill; sweet milk, 1 gill; boil the sizing in water to a proper 
consistence, strain, and add the other ingredients; and when thoroughly 
mixed, it is ready for use. 


Cements, Glues, Pastes, etc. 


CEMENT— Armenian. —The jewelers of Turkey, who are mostly Ar¬ 
menians, have a singular method of ornamenting watch-cases,'etc., with 
diamonds and other precious stones, by glueing or cementing them on. 
The stone is set in silver or gold, and the lower part of the metal made flat, 
or to correspond with the part to which it is to be fixed ; it is then gently 
warmed and the glue is applied, which is so very strong that the parts thus 
cemented never separate. This glue will strongly unite pieces of glass and 
china, and even polished steel, and may be applied to a variety of useful 
purposes. The following is the recipe: 

Dissolve five or six bits of gum mastic, each the size of a large pea, in 
as much rectified spirits of wine as will suffice to render it liquid; and in 
another vessel, dissolve as much isinglass, previously a little softened in 
water (though none of the water must be used,) in French brandy or good 
rum, as will make a two-ounce vial of very strong glue, adding two small 
bits of gum galbanum or ammoniacum, which must be rubbed or ground 
till they are dissolved. Then mix the whole with a sufficient heat. Keep 
the glue in a vial closely stopped, and every time it is to be used set the 
vial in boiling water. 

CEMENT— Architectural.— i. Reduce paper to a smooth paste by 
boiling it in water; then add an equal weight each of sifted whiting and 
good size ; boil to a proper consistence.—2. Paper paste and size, equal 
parts ; finely powdered plaster of Paris to make it of a proper consistence. 
Use it as soon as mixed. Can be used in making architectural busts, 
statues, columns, etc. It is very light, receives a good polish, but will 
not stand the weather. 

CEMENT— Alabaster.— 1. Finely powdered plaster-of-paris, made 
into a cream with water. 2. Melt yellow resin, or equal parts of yellow 
resin and beeswax; then stir in half as much finely powdered plaster-of- 
paris. The first is used to join and fit together pieces of alabaster or mar¬ 
ble, or to mend broken plaster figures. The second is used to join alabas¬ 
ter, marble, porphyry, and any similar substances that will bear being heated. 

CEMENT— Building. —This is made by exposing a mixture of clay or 
loam, broken pottery, flints, silicious sand, or broken bottle-glass, with 
wood-ashes, to a considerable heat in a furnace, until it becomes partially 

285 


286 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


vitrified. It must then be ground to a fine powder, sifted, and mixed with 
one-third its weight of quick-lime, also in fine powder, after which it must 
be packed (tight) in casks to preserve it from the air and moisture. For 
use it is mixed up with water and applied like Roman cement. 

CEMENT —Chinese. —i. Dissolve shellac in enough rectified spirit to 
make a liquid of the consistency of treacle. 2. Boil borax, 1 ounce; and 
shellac, 1 ounce, in water until dissolved. 

CEMENT —Curd.— Add J a pint of vinegar to J a pint of skimmed 
milk; mix the curd with the whites of 5 eggs, well beaten, and sufficient 
powdered quick-lime to form a paste. This cement will resist water and a 
moderate degree of heat. 

HOW TO MAKE A SUPERIOR GUM.—Pour upon n pounds best 
potato starch a mixture of 7 ounces pure nitric acid and 4 pounds 6 ounces 
soft water; stir well together and let stand for 24 hours at the temperature 
of about 80 degrees Fahr., stirring from time to time. Then heat to 212 
degrees Fahr., add gradually from 4 pounds 6 ounces to 6J pounds more 
soft water, and boil till the mass begins to grow thick and transparent. To 
promote this there may be further added 1 Jounces pure nitric acid, diluted 
with 2 pounds 3 ounces of water. The boiling is continued till the liquid 
is clear, dilute with water if too thick, and strain through a woolen 
cloth. Next dissolve 11 pounds gum arabic and 2 pounds 3 ounces of 
sugar in 8 J to 11 pounds of soft water, warming slowly, and adding a little 
more water if the whole is not perfectly dissolved. Strain carefully through 
a woolen cloth, and add to the filtered solution ij ounces nitric acid mixed 
with a little water. Heat to 212 Eahr., for an hour, adding gradually the 
first mentioned solution of starch, and allow the whole to stand at this tem¬ 
perature till perfectly clear. If it is at all turbid, dissolve at a boil 81 - 
ounces isinglass in pounds water and 2 pounds 3 ounces alcohol, keep¬ 
ing up the heat till all the spirit has escaped; strain through a woolen cloth, 
add J ounce pure nitric acid, heat once more, and add the solution gradu¬ 
ally to the adhesive mixture. If any turbidity appears, filter again. The 
consistence can be regulated at pleasure by the addition of water. 

CEMENT —For china, glass, crockery, metal and wood.— An excel¬ 
lent cement for mending china may be made as follows: Take the white of 
an egg and a little flour, which make into a light paste; clear the parts to 
be joined from all dust and dirt; spread some of the paste on each piece 
and press them together; while wet wipe off the exuding portions, both 
inside and out; then let it remain until quite dry. 

The following recipe we know from experience to be a good one, and, 
being nearly colorless, it possesses advantages which liquid glue and other 
cements do not: Dissolve \ an ounce of gum acacia in a wine-glass of boil- 


CEMENTS, GLUES, PASTES, ETC. 287 

ing water; add plaster of Paris sufficient to form a thick paste, and apply 
it with a brush to the parts to be cemented together. 

For mending broken china, glass, etc. —Take one pound white shel¬ 
lac, pulverized; 2 ounces clean gum mastic; put these into a bottle, and 
then add J- pound pure sulphuric ether. Let it stand for half an hour, and 
then add half a gallon 90 per cent, alcohol. Shake occasionally till it is 
dissolved. Heat the edges of the article to be mended, and apply the ce¬ 
ment with a pencil brush; hold the article together until the cement cools. 
This makes a transparent cement. 

Take a thick mucilage of gum-arabic and stir it into plaster of Paris— 
the broken images are best—made very fine, to form a thick paste, and 
apply to the edges with a brush, and press firmly together and confine there 
two or three days. We have pulled over 30 pounds against a wine-glass, 
the stem of which had been broken and mended with this cement. 

CEMENT— Bruyer’s water. —Mix 3 gallons of clay with 1 gallon of 
slacked lime, and expose them to a full red heat for 3 hours. 

CEMENT — Botany bay. —Yellow gum and brick-dust equal parts, 
melted together. It is used to cement coarse earthenware, etc. 

CEMENT— English roman. —Take a bushel of lime slacked, with 3J 
pounds of green copperas, 15 gallons of water, and -J a bushel of fine gravel 
sand. The copperas should be dissolved in hot water; it must be stirred 
with a stick, and kept stirring continually while in use. Care should be 
taken to mix at once as much as may be requisite for one entire front, as it 
is very difficult to match the color again; and it ought to be mixed the 
same day it is used. 

CEMENT— For floors. —Earthen floors are commonly made of loam, 
and sometimes, especially to make malt on, of lime and brook sand, and 
gun dust or anvil dust from the forge. The manner of making earthen 
floors for plain country habitations is as follows: Take f of lime and 1 of 
coal ashes well-sifted, with a small quantity of loam clay, mix the whole 
together, and temper it well with water, making it up into a heap; let it lie 
a week or ten days and then temper it over again. After this, heap it up 
for three or four days, and repeat the tempering very high, till it becomes 
smooth, yielding, tough and gluey. The ground being then leveled, lay the 
floor therewith about or 3 inches thick, making it smooth with a trowel; 
the hotter the season is the better, and when it is thoroughly dried, it will 
make the best floor for houses, especially for malt-houses. If any one 
would have their floors look better, let them take lime of rag-stones, well 
tempered with whites of eggs, covering the floor about half an inch thick 
with it, before the under flooring is too dry. If this be well done and thor¬ 
oughly dried, it will look, when rubbed with a little oil, as transparent as 


288 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


metal or glass. In elegant houses floors of this nature are made of stucco, 
or of plaster of Paris beaten and sifted, and mixed with other ingredients. 

CEMENT — French. — Make a thick mucilage with gum arabic and 
water, then add starch in fine powder to thicken it. Employed by natural¬ 
ists and French artificial-flower makers. A little lemon juice is sometimes 
added. 

CEMENT— German. —For glass or earthenware, i. Take 2 parts of 
gum shellac, and 1 part of Venice turpentine; heat them together in an 
iron pot, taking care to keep the lid quite close, as the turpentine is very 
inflammable. When partially cool form into sticks; when it is wanted for 
use melt near a gentle fire. 2. 2 measures of litharge, and 1 each of 
unslacked lime and flint glass; each to be pulverized separately before mix¬ 
ing ; then, to use it, wet it up with old drying oil. 

CEMENT—To fasten leather to metal. —A hot solution of gelatine, 
with this wash the metal; and the leather, previously steeped in a hot infu¬ 
sion of gall-nuts, is to be pressed tightly on the surface and allowed to cool, 
when it will adhere very firmly. 

CEMENT— For leather. —A mixture of India rubber and shellac var¬ 
nish makes a very adhesive leather cement. A strong solution of common 
isinglass with a little diluted alcohol added to it, makes an excellent cement 
for leather. 

CEMENT —Leather or shoemaker’s. —The following compound is 
used by shoemakers for invisible patching: To 10 parts bisulphide car¬ 
bon and 1 part spirits of turpentine, add enough gutta-percha to make a 
tough, thickly-flowing liquid. The surface to be joined must be perfectly 
free from grease, which is accomplished by laying a cloth upon them and 
applying a hot iron for a time. The coat is applied to both surfaces, and 
pressure made till the points are dry. 

CEMENT— For iron boilers. —This cement is used to stop the cracks 
and leaks in iron boilers, stoves, etc. 1. Dried clay in powder, 6 pounds; 
iron filings, 1 pound. Make a paste with boiled linseed oil. 2. Take 2 
ounces of muriate of ammonia, 1 ounce of flour of sulphur, and 16 ounces 
of cast-iron filings or turnings; mix them well in a mortar, and keep the 
powder dry. When the cement is wanted, take one part of this and 20 
parts of clean iron filings or borings, grind them together in a mortar, mix 
them with water to a proper consistence, and apply them between the joints. 

CEMENT— Iron. —To make an iron cement suitable for making rust 
joints, mix thoroughly 112 pounds of clean cast-iron borings, or turnings, 
with 8 ounces of sal ammonia, and 1 ounce of flour of sulphur, and add 
sufficient water. Keep wet when not to be immediately used, or it will heat 
and be spoiled. 


CEMENTS, GLUES, PASTES, ETC. 


289 


CEMENT— Liquid. —Cut gum shellac in 70 per cent, alcohol; put it in 
phials, and it is ready for use. Apply it to the edge of the broken dish 
with a feather, and hold it in a spirit lamp as long as the cement will sim¬ 
mer, then join together evenly, and when cold the dish will break in an¬ 
other place first, and is as strong as when new. 

CEMENT— Optician’s. —1. Shellac, softened with rectified spirits or 
wood naptha. For fine work. 2. Melt wax, 1 ounce, and resin 15 ounces; 
then add whiting, 4 ounces, previously made red hot, and still warm. 
Used to fix glasses, stones, etc., while polishing and cutting. 

CEMENT— For steam pipes.— 1. White lead, mixed 2 parts; red lead, 
dry, 1 part; grind or otherwise mix them to a consistence of thin putty; 
apply interposed layers with one or two thicknesses of canvas or gauze 
wire, as the necessity of the case may be. 2. (Stephenson’s.) If 2 
parts litharge are mixed with 1 part dry slacked lime and 1 part fine sand, 
well rubbed together, and mixed with such a quantity of hot linseed-oil 
varnish as to form a pasty mass, an excellent cement for iron steam-pipes 
is obtained, which soon sets hard. Consequently, it must be prepared 
fresh every time, and applied when still hot. 

CEMENT— For stoves. —1. Goodwood-ashes are to be sifted through 
a fine sieve, to which is to be added the same quantity of clay, finely pul¬ 
verized, together with a little salt. The mixture is to be moistened with 
water enough to make a paste, and the crack of the stove filled with it. 
2. An excellent cement for iron stoves or furnaces is a paste of soluble 
glass and barytes, with or without some fine fire-clay, and the soluble glass 
may be replaced by a solution of borax, and both these and barytes by a 
mixture of clay and powdered glass. 

CEMEMT— For stopping cracks in jars. —A good cement for stop¬ 
ping cracks in jars may be made as follows: Take equal parts of white 
lead and white sand, and as much oil as will make it of the consistency of 
putty; in a few weeks it will become as hard as stone. 

CEMENT— Turkish, for joining metals, glass, etc. —Dissolve mas¬ 
tic in as much spirit of wine as will suffice to render it liquid; in another 
vessel dissolve as much isinglass (which has been previously soaked in water 
till it is swollen and soft) in brandy as will make two ounces by measure of 
strong glue, and add two small bits of gum galbanum, or ammoniacum, 
which must be rubbed or ground till they are dissolved; then mix the whole 
with a sufficient heat; keep it in a phial stopped, and when it is to be used 
set it in hot water. 

GLUE— Marine. —Mix together gum sandaric, \ pound; gum mastic, 
\ pound, and methylated spirit, 8 pounds. When the gums are dissolved, 
add J pound turpentine, and incorporate this with a thick, hot solution of 

18 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


290 

the best glue, (to which a little isinglass has been added to clarify it,) and 
filter through muslin. The marine glue will be impervious to moisture, 
and will not soften in any ordinarily hot weather. 

GLUE— Spalding’s. —Soak the glue in cold water, using only glass, 
earthen or porcelain dishes; then by a gentle heat dissolve the glue in the 
same water, and pour in a small quantity of nitric acid, sufficient t o give 
the glue a sour taste, like vinegar, or 1 ounce to every pound of glue. 

GLUE— Water-proof. —Render glue perfectly soft, but not liquid, in 
cold water; then dissolve it by gentle heat, in linseed oil. It dries almost 
immediately, and water will not affect it. 

MUCILAGE— Good. —For household purposes this maybe made by 
mixing six ounces gum arabic, six ounces distilled vinegar, with one ounce 
white sugar. Instead of the distilled vinegar, two parts acetic acid and ten 
parts water may be substituted. 

SALVE—To make sticking. —Three pounds resin, half a pound mut¬ 
ton tallow, half a pound of beeswax, and a tablespoonful of sulphur; melted, 
poured into cold water, and worked and pulled an hour. 

POSTAGE STAMPS to stick well should be wet on their face, after 
they are applied , this effectually prevents the corners from curling up. 

PASTE— Common. —To a dessert-spoonful of flour add, gradually, half 
.a pint of water, and mix quite smooth; add a pinch of powdered alum 
{and some add a pinch of powdered resin,) and boil for a few min- 
aites, stirring constantly. The addition of a little brown sugar and a 
few grains of corrosive sublimate, is said to preserve it for years. 

PASTE— Flour. —Water, one quart; alum, f ounce. Dissolve, and 
when cold, add flour to make it of the consistence of cream, then bring 
it to a boil, stirring it all the while. 

ANOTHER— Hard. —To the above add a little powdered resin and a 
clove or two before boiling. This will keep for twelve months. When dry 
it may be softened with water. 


Bee-Keeper’s Guide. 



The Apiary. 


Every family in the country should have its hive of bees, and taking into 
consideration the small cost and labor that such would amount to, and the 
immense returns, we cannot see how any family can afford to be without 
them. 

To those who have bees, or contemplate having them, we give a few 
hints on bee-keeping which may be of value. 

The queen is the only perfect female bee in the hive, and lays all the 
eggs, from which are produced workers. During the time the family of 
bees are preparing to swarm, she deposits her eggs in drone and queen 
cells, from which males and queens are developed. To all appearance there 
is no difference between the eggs for a worker or queen. The queen, in 
the height of the breeding season, will average fifteen hundred eggs per 
day, and her laying is not confined to the summer season, but 
she has more or less brood the year around. The only excep¬ 
tion to this is during the coldest weather in winter, or a dearth 
in the honey harvest. She usually lives four or five years. Any 
one who sees a queen will readily recognize her, as she has 
a longer body and shorter (in proportion) wings than the 
worker, and in appearance having a more wasp-like form of a 
golden color underneath, with a slightly darker back. Her 
body is not as large as that of the drone, but longer. There is no danger 
in handling her, as she never uses her sting, except in combat with rival 
queens. 



Fig. 289. 
Queen. 


291 





292 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



Fig. 290. 
Worker. 



Fig. 291. Drone. 
Breeding.- 


The worker bee is an imperfect or undeveloped female bee, and forms 
the bulk of the population of a hive. A hive may be large or small—may 
be fifteen thousand or fifty thousand workers, more or less, 
just according to the season. The workers gather all the 
honey, pollen and bee-glue, carrying the latter in little baskets 
on their thighs, the former in little sacks, sometimes called the 
first stomach. They secrete the wax from honey, feed the 
young, clean the hive, and we might say, do all the work 
except lay the eggs. They are short-lived, on an average in the working 
season, being only two months. But in winter, when they are idle, they 
sometimes live six months, or even longer. 

The drones are the male bees of the hive, and their only use is to fer¬ 
tilize the queens. This always takes place when on the 
wing. The queen never leaves the hive, except for the 
purpose of meeting the drones or lead of a swarm. The 
less the number of drones in a hive the better, as they 
are idlers and useless consumers of honey. The bees 
kill them off when swarming is over, or honey harvest 
fails. The drones have no stings. 

-After the queen deposits the egg, it takes an average of 
about twenty-two days before the worker comes forth a perfect insect. About 
twenty-five days are required from the laying of the egg to the hatching 
forth of the drone. The time for the development of the queen is only 
sixteen days from the laying of the egg. 

Swarming. —So far no certain signs have been discovered that would 
indicate the time the first swarm will leave the parent hive. If weather 
and yield of honey are both favorable, swarms may be looked for when the 
bees come to be crowded for room, the hive being well-filled with combs, 
stores and bees, and royal cells in a forward state of preparation. The old 
queen always leads forth the first swarm. In about nine days after the 
issue of the first swarm, a second may be looked for, if the weather and 
honey harvest are favorable. In about three days after the second swarm 
the third swarm may issue. The two latter swarms may vary more or less 
from these times, according to the weather and circumstances. 

Fig. 292 represents a clustering device for swarms to alight upon. It is 
made of a block of wood shaped as shown in the engraving, and covered 
with a piece of black cloth, or felt hat, or it may be 
stuffed with straw or other material, with a wire hook 
inserted to hang in a shady place, on the limb of a 
tree or bush, near and in plain sight of the hives. 
Fig. 292. It would be a good thing to place several of these 



bee-keeper’s guide. 


293 


devices in different parts of the apiary. A good plan is to string a few 
dead bees on the device, and swarms will be more likely to settle upon 
them. Those who have used them give them an excellent recommenda¬ 
tion. In hiving they are very convenient, as they are easily detached from 
the limb, without disturbing the bees, and taken to the hive and shaken 
down before the entrance or into the hive. 

Fig. 293 represents what the Germans call a “ bee-course.” It is made 
of half-inch pine boards, secured by battens or cleats, and 
is about four feet long and two broad at the widest end, and 
tapering down to the width of the hive it is designed to ac¬ 
company. Strips are nailed upon each edge, rising about 
two inches above the surface of the board, so as to guide 
the bees to the entrance of the hive. In use, the widest 
end is placed upon the ground and the other supported on 
a level with the bottom board of the hive by two strips of Fig. 293. 
hoop iron, projecting from the upper surface and resting on the bottom 
board. It is very convenient in hiving swarms. By shaking the bees near 
the lower end and dipping up a few and placing them near the entrance, 
they will set up a call, when the remainder will commence marching up the 
“bee-course.” By keeping a sharp lookout, the queen can be seen as 
she marches up the board to enter the hive. May, June or July may be 
the chief swarming months, according to locality and season, and the con¬ 
dition of the stock in the spring. Very few swarms fly away to woods from 
apiaries that are carefully attended. The careless and negligent bee-keeper 
often loses some of his best swarms from this cause. If swarms attempt 
to leave, throw water and dirt among them, and it will prove much more 
effectual than all the outlandish noise you can make. Use hives perfectly 
sweet and clean, and use no salt or herbs in their preparation. A swarm 
may be prevented from leaving by contracting the entrance to exactly jive 
thirty-seconds of an inch. This allows the workers to pass, but confines 
the queen. Without her the bees will never leave. A strip of tin can be 
tacked over the entrance, leaving a space of five thirty-seconds of an inch 
between it and the bottom board. In case of second and third swarms, it 
should be removed the third or fourth day, to allow the queen to fly out to 
meet the drones. 

Artificial swarms, every way equal in value to natural swarms, can be 
made by those having the movable comb hive. When the bees are gath¬ 
ering honey abundantly, and there are plenty of drones to mate with the 
young queens, this plan of swarming should be practiced. A short time 
before, or about the time of natural swarming, should be time selected to 
practice it. 





294 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Surplus honey boxes, of a small size, are conveniently made. The 
sides are glass, and the top, bottom, and ends of pine, one-fourth of an 
inch thick. Bees will not store as much honey in small boxes 
as in larger ones, but it will generally bring a much higher price, 
more than enough to pay the extra cost. Before putting them 
on the hive let all the corners be cemented with resin and bees¬ 
wax, and pieces of bright comb cemented to the top, to induce 
work early. Fig. 294 represents one of this style 



Fig. 294. 



the bees to commence 
stored with honey. 

A bee protector, or vail, manufactured from black linen thread, with 
the edges sowed together, forming, when distended, a 
cylinder large enough to admit the brim of a hat, 
gathered round the crown with a string, and of suffi. 
cient length to be buttoned down under the coat or 
vest, forms a perfect armor against the sting of the 
bee. It is light, convenient, and obstructs the vision 
but slightly. It is immeasurably superior to the old 
wire bee-hat, as usually constructed. An article that 
will answer can be made of black barege or lace. The 
manner of wearing the protector is illustrated by the 
engraving annexed (fig. 295.) The bee-keeper, armed 
with a vail, as shown in the figure, and a pair of India. 

Fig- 295. rubber gloves, is perfectly safe from the attacks of a 

whole apiary. Old bee-masters are seldom stung, but beginners should be 
so protected that they can go among their bees with perfect confidence 
and perform all necessary manipulations with deliberation. 

Bee-stings are seldom fatal, but very painful and annoying to some per¬ 
sons. If a little smoke is blown into the hive before the bees are handled, 
they will fill themselves with honey and will be good-natured. They will 
become as harmless as flies, and you can even tear their hives to pieces 
without their showing resentment, if you do not pinch or otherwise injure 
individual bees, which will resent such personal injuries by thrusting out 
their stings. Tobacco we believe to be the most effective and convenient 
article to use for smoking purposes, and should be burned in a tube, made 
so that the operator can blow through the tube, directing the smoke through 
any orifice to any portion of the hive. One or two puffs of smoke will 
mostly answer all purposes. They can be purchased cheaply, or any one 
that has a little ingenuity, can make one. 

When completed it somewhat resembles the annexed engraving, fig. 296. 

A knob is left on the mouth-piece for convenience 
of holding between the teeth. 

Fig. 296. The bee-moth, or miller, and its progeny, are 







bee-keeper’s guide. 


295 


the pest of modem apiaries. The following engravings, figs. 297 and 298, 
show the male and female millers. The female is distin- 
guished from the male by her bill-like head. She deposits 
US her eggs in and around the warm portions of the hive, which 
soon hatch worms, as shown in 
*||||p fig. 299. The worms feed upon 
wax, and work in the centre of 
Figs. 297, 298. the combs edgewise, enveloped 
in a kind of tubular covering of web, so that it is with difficulty that the 
bees dislodge them. Strong stocks will generally protect themselves. 
Queenless and weak stocks are the most liable to fall the prey of these rav¬ 
enous worms. If you attend often to your bees, destroy all the millers and 
worms found about the hives or apiary; you will be quite likely to keep 
them in subjection. Blocks or sticks placed under the hive, having little 
troughs or creases cut in them, and turned down upon the bottom board, 
with frequent openings for the worms to crawl under, form capital hiding 
places. Remove these every day or two, smash all the worms you find, 
and replace them for more. If a hive is made snug and tight, as it should 
be, you will trap nearly every worm, when it seeks for a hiding place to wind 
up, preparatory to its change into a miller. 

Loss of queen. —If the apiarian discards bee-houses, and sets his hives 
here and there about his grounds with some distinctive mark about each 
hive, so that the young queens in their flight can easily distinguish their 
own homes, the loss of queens will be very few. In the summer, when the 
drones are in flight, a queenless stock can be furnished with a sheet of comb 
containing eggs, and they will immediately proceed to rear a new queen. 
When the drones are not in flight, the queenless stock should be united to 
a stock containing a fertile queen, but one not very strong in numbers. 

Robbing. —Bees often learn to rob by having combs containing honey 
and other liquid sweets placed or left where they will attract their attention. 
They should have honey placed above them in the cap, and be well secured 
against intruders from other hives, if it becomes necessary to feed them. 
It should never be exposed where all the bees of an apiary can have access 
to it. If you discover a hive is being robbed, close the entrance so that but 
one bee can pass at a time. Incline the bottom board to an angle of about 
thirty degrees, and the bees, unless queenless, will protect themselves with 
perhaps few exceptions. If any cases of failure do occur, the hole must 
be closed for a day or two, until the robbers give up the attempt. Provis¬ 
ion must be provided, and the hive must be watched for a day or two after 
it is opened, as the robbers may again return to the attack. 

Cement for bee-hives. —A mixture of three-fourths resin and one-fourth 



Fig. 299. 



296 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


beeswax, melted and kept at the right temperature, in a tin dish, over a 
kerosene lamp, will be found excellent to cement the comers of hives and 
combs into frames and boxes. 

Contrivance for hiving bees. —Take a board as large as the bottom of 
the hive, bore a number of holes through it, and insert corn cobs through 
these holes ; then nail securely a handle 8 or 10 feet long to this board. 
Nail a narrow board so as to form a sort of hood over the cobs when it is 
set up. Make a slanting hole with the crow-bar in the ground, and thrust 
the pole or handle into this hole. If these cobs are dyed of a dark brown 
color, the bees will be almost sure to light upon them. But should they 
light on the branch of a tree a few gentle taps against the limb will induce 
them to leave it and adhere to the cobs. These, from their rough surface, 
will enable the bees to hold on firmly. When they have settled take out 
the pole, lay the instrument flat, and place the hive on the board which holds 
the swarm, and the thing is done. In large apiaries two or three of these 
may be on hand for use. 

Wintering bees. —A writer in a bee journal says, that of all the ways 
he “ has tried,” he has met with success in wintering in straw hives, upon 
their summer stands. They guard against sudden changes of the temper¬ 
ature ; give good ventilation, and allow all the moisture to pass off. 

The most profitable bee to keep.— The United States Government, a 
few years ago, was so favorably impressed with the importance of the Italian 
bee, and its superiority over the native bee, that they made some importa¬ 
tions through the Patent Office Department, at a very heavy expense. 
Their superiority consists, first, in their being more prolific ; second, that 
they swarm earlier; third, that they are more hardy and endure more cold, 
and consequently work earlier in the day and later in the season; fourth, 
that they store more honey, and store honey when black bees starve; fifth, 
that they are stronger, have a longer proboscis, and can reach the bottom 
of cups of flowers that black bees are unable to. This may be tested by 
placing wire cloth over a glass filled with honey and placed in the 
apiary where both blacks and Italians may have free access; the Italians 
will be found drawing from it after the blacks have deserted it. Sixth, they 
are more vigorous and vigilant in defending their stores ; seventh, they are 
more tractable and less liable to sting. Practical observations have 
more than doubled our confidence in and admiration of the golden Italian, 
which is worth its weight in gold. Infusing pure Italian blood in a native 
colony is infusing new life, energy, a new spirit of industry and economy 
into the hive, which we find practically illustrated in our examinations 
recently made, which showed that honey is stored as a general thing in 
proportion to the amount of Italian blood in the colony, the pure Italians 


bee-keeper’s guide. 


297 


having the greatest amount, and the blacks the least. Italianizing, or chang¬ 
ing black bees to Italians, is another very important feature in the science 
of apiculture. The queen is the presiding head of the colony and the 
mother of all, consequently they are of the same blood. When a pure 
Italian queen meets a black drone her working progeny will be hybrids, 
while her drones will remain of the same blood as herself, as fertilization 
never affects the drones, hence the necessity of pure drones to perpetuate 
the pure stock. 

To Italianize a colony.— First remove the black queen. About 24 
hours after introduce the Italian queen, when in about 21 days the entire 
colony will be Italian bees. The colony from which the Italian queen was 
removed will, as soon as they find themselves queenless, proceed to rear 
another, and mil build from five to fifteen queen cells, which, after they 
have been capped over, may be removed or transferred to other queenless 
colonies that have been twenty hours or more without a queen. Great care 
should be taken that not the least damage should be done to the cell, which 
must be cut out with a sharp knife and a corresponding hole cut in the 
comb in the hive to which you wish to transfer it, in which place the cell in 
its original position as near as may be; the bees will at once wax it fast 
and nurse it until the queen appears. The primary steps in Italianizing 
should be taken early in the season, before the queen commences to lay 
drone eggs, by cutting all drone comb from the black colonies and thus 
prevent the raising of any black drones; or, what might be better, take the 
drone comb from the black bees and give it to the Italians until filled with 
drone eggs, when they may be returned to the hives from which they were 
taken, where the bees will hatch them out. This plan may be pursued 
where many drones are wanted. 

Uniting colonies is another very important matter which we cannot pass 
by, as the present disastrous crisis in agriculture renders it very essential 
and important to be understood. Colonies that become too weak to be 
self-sustaining should be united, which may be done with perfect safety by 
first alarming the bees in both hives, that they may fill themselves with 
honey, which will render them more sociable. After this operation, which 
takes but a few minutes, they may be sprinkled with sweetened water, or 
peppermint, or other pleasant and odoriferous liquids, which will serve for a 
time to render the bees all of the same scent, making it for the time being 
impossible for them to distinguish each other. The top of one hive may 
then be removed and the frames lifted from the other and the bees shaken 
into it. The best queen of the two should be preserved. All comb con¬ 
taining brood or honey should be transferred to the hive with the bees. 
All empty comb should be preserved, as its value can hardly be estimated 


298 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


when we consider that every pound of comb is equal to twenty pounds of 
honey, or that the bees will store twenty pounds of honey in the same time 
they are building one pound of comb, hence the valuable acquisition of 
comb foundation, which commends itself to all practical bee-keepers. This 
subject might be pursued to much greater length, but let it suffice to say 
that the new light that has been shed upon this pleasing and interesting 
branch of science by a Huber, a Dzierzon, a Siebold, a Langstroth, a Tup- 
per, a Harbison, and a host of others, has made this branch of industry 
both pleasing and profitable. The new demands for honey in Europe and 
America have stimulated it to more rapid strides upward and onward until 
it no longer is considered in the light of insignificancy, but has now assumed 
a character of national importance. 



Insects and Farmers’ enemies. 



Fig. 300.—Asterias Butterfly, 


THE BEET is quite free from insect enemies, the only insect that is 
entitled to any consideration being the striped blistering-fly. The beetles 
many times appear in great numbers, attacking potatoe-tops, and stripping 
them bare of their foliage. 

Remedy.— The only remedy that we know of is to gather them in pans 
and destroy them by sinking the pan (it being covered) into boiling water. 

THE CARROT AND PARSNIP, like the beet, are not troubled much by 
insects. The negro-fly, which produces a yellow maggot that bores the 
root of the carrot in Europe, has not yet done much 
damage to the crop in this country. But the leaves 
_ of these two vegetables, and also those' of parsley 
sleyworm. and carraway, are eaten by a large, thick-bodied 
apple-green worm (fig. 301,) with black bands. This worm finally becomes 
a beautiful large butterfly, which is called Asterias butterfly (fig. 300.) 
There are two broods each year, the worms appearing in July and again 
in August. They should be picked off by hand and killed. 

THE RADISH is troubled with the striped flea beetle, the leaves being 
perforated with small holes by it. For treatment see under head of cabbage. 

THE CABBAGE seems to have more enemies than any other vegetable^ 

299 



300 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


its roots, stalks and leaves each having its particular enemies. The root fre¬ 
quently has its surface excoriorated and its interior bored by the larva of a 
maggot called cabbage-fly, which is very destructive, especially on young 
plants. They also destroy cauliflowers. The larva seems in all respects 
like that of the radish-fly. There are, of course, many remedies recom¬ 
mended, but a correspondent says that he saved his plants from general 
ruin by sifting powdered tobacco upon them, repeating the operation in 
case the dust was blown or washed off by a high wind or rain storm. 

Another species, termed young centipedes, or thousand-legged worms, also 
attacks the roots of the cabbage. There are several varieties of this worm, 
but all pertain to one species, and are known as the flat-backed centipedes, 
see fig. 302, and the round centipedes, the difference 
WTOSW®* being i n their form. They can easily be caught by set- 
Fig. 302. Flat- ting traps for them. Pieces of old boards and large 
backed Centipede, chips scattered about the garden will nightly gather a 
number under them. They can then be easily killed by cutting them in 
pieces with a knife. But the best manner to destroy them is to confine in 
the garden, under a small coop, a hen with small chickens. 

The worst enemy of the cabbage is the well-known cut-worm. These cut¬ 
worms are the larva of a dark col¬ 
ored miller or moth. These moth 
appear early in the month of July, 
flying about by night, and many 
times entering dwellings by the 
open windows, being attracted by 
Big. 303. Cut- the light. The worm will sever 
worm moth at rest, cabbages, beans, cucumbers, and other tenderous plants, 
and from this habit it derives its name. The best plan we know of to de¬ 
stroy these worms, is to look over the garden plants every morning, and 
whenever a plant is found cut off, make a search for the roughened spot in 
the ground where the worm is secreted, find and destroy it. 

Cabbage is also, especially when young, greatly injured by flea-beetles, 
which perforate small holes in the leaves. There are three or four 
species of this insect which trouble us, but the most destructive 
one is the striped flea-beetle, which is shown in fig. 305, magnified. 
It will only attack young plants. Dusting the plants with ashes, 
plaster, lime, soot, snuff, sulphur, or a mixture of two or more of 
Fig. 305. these, every second or third day, should never be omitted. Toads 
S F?ea- d are beneficial to a garden, and should never be molested, 
beetle. The garden flea, another leaping insect, fig. 306, is a very small 
one, smaller than grains of gun-powder. Where a flea-beetle or other in- 




Fig. 304. Cut-worm moth 
flying. 



INSECTS AND FARMERS’ ENEMIES. 


301 


sect makes a wound in a leaf, these small insects become 
gathered along its edges, which causes the wound in the leaf 
to be made larger and prevented from healing. The remedy 
for these insects is the same as for the striped flea-beetle, cut¬ 
worm, etc. 

The cabbage has yet more enemies. One of the most im¬ 
portant of which is a species which occasionally appears in 
^306.^' The particular neighborhoods in such large numbers as to com¬ 
pletely riddle the leaves with irregular holes of all sizes. It is 
in appearance a small cylindrical pale-green 
worm, in size about one-fourth of an inch in 
length, and drops itself down from the leaf by 
a thread. The moth, fig. 308, measures about 
three-fifths of an inch across its wings when ex¬ 
tended : its fore-wings freckled with black dots, 
and having a broad, wavy white stripe on the Fl S* 3°8- Cabbage Moth, 
innner side. 

The leaves of the turnip and ruta-baga are liable to have large, irregular 
holes eaten in them, by the same pale green worms, the larva of the white 
butterfly, which we have noticed under 
the head of cabbage. The striped flea 
beetle frequently riddles the leaves of 
the turnip with small holes, and can 
always be found in larger numbers upon 

the leaves of the turnip than on the Fig 3 , 0 . whT ge d Female 
Fig. 309. cabbage. The cabbage Aphis is an of the Cabbage Aphis. 
maTe^oFthe i nsect which will be oftener met with than any other upon the 
Cabbage cabbage and ruta-baga. Early in June when the cabbage 
Aphis. pi ants are two or three inches high, they make their appear¬ 
ance on them, and before long they become very numerous, every plant 
being crowded with them. Tobacco smoke will cleanse any plant from 
lice, where it is so applied as to penetrate between the leaves sufficiently to 
reach every insect upon them. Soap-suds, so often recommended, will 
only kill the young tender lice, leaving the old ones alive to found new 
swarms of these pests. 

CUCUMBER, the Squash and the Melon Vines are so alike, the same 
insects which are enemies of one are also enemies of the other. The 
worst enemy of these vines is the striped yellow cucumber beetle, or 
“ cucumber bug,” as it is frequently called. Fig. 

311 represents one of the worms, greatly mag- 
nified. Inside of the cell which it thus forms, Fig . 3 „. La ^ f the Cucum- 
the worm throws off the larva, and becomes a her Beetle. 









302 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



pupa. After remaining in this form about two weeks, it casts off its skin 
again, and acquires its perfect form. 

It now has the form of fig. 312. These beetles make their appearance 
in May, and continue through the whole season. Enclosing 
the hills in boxes, open at bottom and top, has proven to be 
one of the best protections. 

The Squash coccinella or “ spotted squash bug ” as it is 
12 Cu more generally called, feeds upon the leaves of the squash, 
cumberBeetle. eating them in large circular holes. We are accustomed to 
call these insects Lady-bugs, and to regard them of value, feeding as they 
do upon plant lice, that we view it as strange, 
that a member of this species should sustain 
Fig -13 La rva * tse ^ u P on vegetation. The larva after attain- Fig. 314. 
of the Squash ing its growth, crawls to some shaded place* Squ ^ 1 ^' occl " 

Coccinella. an d c h an g es to a pupa, enclosed in the dry and 
thorny skin of the larva. It remains in its pupa state dormant for a week, 
when the beetle in its perfect form crawls out from the thorny case. 

The only remedy yet discovered is hand-picking, or burshing them from 
the leaves into a pan of brine or boiling water. 

THE SQUASH-BUG is a terrible enemy to the squash and pumpkin 
vines. See Fig. 3*15. They may be destroyed by pressing and 
cracking them between the thumb nails, or those clusters near 

Fig. 3 i 5 * the edge of the leaf may be torn off and tramped on, or des- 
Squash-Bug. tr0 y e( j by £ re> 

SQUASH-BUGS—To keep off.— Knock the bottoms out of cheese 
Boxes, nail on screen cloth, and set them over the hills. When not in use 
pack them away, and one set will last a number of years. 

TOMATOES are infested with a very large, thick bodied, green worm, 
as shown in fig. 317. These worms 
do not belong exclusively to the 
tomatoes, but prey upon the vines 
of the potato also. Likewise they 
invade tobacco, causing much in- 




Fig. 317.—Tomato Worm. Fig. 318.—Tomato Worm Moth, 

jury to that plant by the holes they cut in the leaves, and is undoubtedly 
the worst enemy the tobacco grower has to contend with. The fig. 318 is 




INSECTS AND FARMERS’ ENEMIES. 


303 




the mother or miller, the parent of the worm, and is called Five Spotted 
Hawk-moth. There is very little difference between the Southern tobacco 
worm, or as it is called in its perfect state, Carolina hawk-moth, and the 
above. The same measures are resorted to for subduing both these worms, 
and that is hand-picking, and the operation must be repeated daily. 

The potato is usually the least molested, but the ten-lined Potato Beetle 
is an enemy that is well worth while looking 
after. It also preys on the leaves of the to¬ 
mato. The only remedy is hand-picking, or 
brushing or shaking the insects in a pan of 

Fig. 319. Ten- 
lined Potato bee- water * 

tie. The Three-lined Potato Beetle is an insect 

related to the preceding, and has the same habits. It is also ^'lmed'pJtato 6 " 
common upon the stramonium. The only remedy known Beetle, 
is to pass along the row of vines, and break off the leaves on which they 
occur, dropping them on the ground and tramping on them. 

THE CURCULIO OR PLUM WEEVIL is undoubtedly the most 
troublesome and expensive insect in the country, with perhaps the wheat 
midge excepted. It attacks nearly all of our important fruits, with the ex¬ 
ception of the grape, currant and gooseberry. The only remedy 
that we can recommend is to thoroughly mix four ounces of sul¬ 
phur and one pound of whale-oil soap; stir well together half a 
peck of quick lime in four gallons of water, and when it settles 
pour off the clear liquid, and add it to the soap solution, to 
which four gallons of tolerably strong tobacco water are also to be added. 
When the first mark of the curculio is seen upon the young fruit, take a 
syring and drench the foliage thoroughly with the mixture, and in case rain 
occurs within three weeks to wash it off, repeat it. But the surest plan of 
decreasing the numbers of these insects in our grounds, is to pick 
up all the withered fruit which drops from the trees, and feed it to the 
swine, or bum it or otherwise effectually destroy it. The worm within 
the fruit, if it happens to be full grown when this drops, will leave it and 
enter the ground, perhaps within a few hours. Therefore, during the latter 
part of June and the fore part of July, the ground under the trees should 
be passed over daily, at least when sufficient air is stirring to cause much 
of the blasted fruit to fall. Or the same end will be attained, if swine can 
be pastured in the orchard at this time, to forage under the trees for them¬ 
selves. 

Another remedy, brought to public notice over thirty years ago, not 
claimed as an effectual but as a partial safeguard against this insect, and 
the utility of which is attested by long and extensive experience, is the fol- 


Fig. 321. 
Curculio. 


304 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


lowing: Soon after the blossoms have fallen, when the first wounds of the 
Curculio begin to be seen upon the young fruit, spread sheets beneath the 
tree reaching as far out as the limbs extend, and with the hand, if the tree is 
small, with a wooden mallet if it be large, strike against the body of the 
tree a blow sufficiently heavy to give the whole tree a sudden jar. To pre¬ 
vent the bark being bruised when thus struck with a mallet, hold against 
it, to receive the blow, a piece of carpeting or coarse cloth, wound around 
the end of a strip of thin board, some four inches wide and two feet long. 
A portion of the weevils, alarmed with this jar of the tree, will drop down 
upon the sheets, and will lie there a short time as if dead. Then crush 
them between thumb and finger. Repeat this operation daily. 

WIREWORMS are among the worst pests to our garden crops, and we 
might add, to our field crops also. They have come to be designated 
as “ snapping bugs,” because when they spring or 
sudden snap, they make a loud click, something 
like the ticking of a clock. They attack potatoes, 
cabbages, turnips, beets, carrots, onions and lettuce 
in our gardens; and also strawberries, pinks, carna¬ 
tions, dahlias and numerous other flowers; but the 



Fig. 322. Common Snap 
ping Beetle. 


greatest losses are from the destruction of the field crops, Indian corn, rye, 
oats, barley and wheat. 

THE ELATER, which is most frequently found in our gardens, or as it 
is usually called, common snapping beetle, fig. 322, is covered with short, 
fine, prostrate ash-gray hairs; its wing covers 
having rows of punctures resembling the stitches 

of a garment. The wire worms which we meet Fig. 323. Common Wireworm. 
with in our gardens, are nearly all of one kind, and no doubt but that they 
are the progeny of these beetles. There really is no remedy against these 
destructive insects. It is important to kill the small young ones which 
occur early in autumn—but the only plan we can recommend for their 
destruction is hand picking. 

APPLE-TREE CATERPILLAR, which during the month of May forms 
large cobweb-like nests in the forks of the limbs of apple and cherry trees, is 

well-known. The best remedy is, to be on the 
lookout for the nests of these caterpillars when 
the season for their appearance arrives, and 
whenever one of them is discovered with the 
worms gathered in it take the first rough stick 
that is at hand and press it into the fork of 
the limb, and draw it up and down upon one 
side of the fork and the other, until the nest and every worm which can be 
seen are ground together into fragments. 



Fig. 324. 

Moth of apple-tree Caterpillar. 








INSECTS AND FARMERS’ ENEMIES. 


305 




Fig. 326. Peach 
tree Borer, 
(male) 



APPLE-TREE BORER is an insect almost as destructive to the apple 
tree itself as the curculio is to the fruit. The bark and 
wood over the burrow which this borer makes always dies, 
and if the tree survives it never recovers from the injury. 
Bushing the butts of the trees thickly with air-slacked lime 
is about the best remedy we know of, and we have more 
Y[g ^25 confidence in its good qualities than soap. But, if not- 
Apple-tree Borer, withstanding these precautions, any worms become estab¬ 
lished at the root of the tree, they should be searched for, discovered and 
destroyed. 

APPLE BARK LOUSE is another destructive insect. It is in appear¬ 
ance as a little brown scale, one-eight of an inch long. Smearing the 
bark of infested trees with grease or oil early in June, is a most effectual 
remedy. 

PEACH TREE BORER is very destructive to the peach tree, and in 
appearance and habits somewhat 
resembles the apple tree borer. 

The trees should be examined every 
spring. A glance will show if any gum 
is exuded between the ground and 
root, and if such be the case, the 
worm causing it should be searched 
for, discovered and destroyed. A bank of ashes or slacked lime is then 
placed about the butt of the tree to the height of a few inches, and taken 
away in autumn, this prevents the moth from getting near the root to 
deposit her eggs. 

ORCHARD CATERPILLAR.—The vast number of these caterpillars 
in many parts of the country admonishes orchardists to destroy them 
before they make such progress again as they have in the past. Some 
apple trees have been entirely stripped of their leaves—not only rendering 
a crop impossible, but checking the growth of the tree at the most import¬ 
ant period of the year, and rendering it liable to injury by winter, and re¬ 
tarding its vigor in future. It is not too soon on August 1st to commence 
the destruction of the eggs, which have been recently placed upon the 
young twigs. As they are usually on the projecting shoots near the out¬ 
side of the tree, the practiced eye will quickly detect their presence, and a 
single clip of a pair of orchard shears, placed on the end of a pole, and 
worked with a cord, will bring them to the ground. This is much easier 
than the more laborious and more uncertain process of brushing, swabbing, 
winding, threshing, pounding and crushing, after the caterpillars are half or 
wholly grown, for no individual escapes when the little ring of eggs is taken 

19 


Fig. 327.- Peach tree Borer, 
(female) 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


306 

off entire. In the autumn, after the leaves have fallen, pass around again 
and clip out the remainder. By going through the orchard at least two or 
three times, there is less chance for any accidentally hidden rings to escape. 
A cloudy day should be selected, so that the light may not dazzle or injure 
the eye ; and after some practice, it is surprising with what quickness any 
one may detect these rings on the twigs, by a glance over the apple tree. 
Cherry, pear and other trees should be examined in the same way. 

A careful attention to these instructions any time before spring, will com¬ 
pletely clear the orchards of this pest, and the owner will have the satisfac¬ 
tion as he passes the trees, of seeing them full of healthy foliage, without 
the annoyance of witnessing these huge nests on denuded branches. 

CURRANT WORMS.—A correspondent says that he treats his currant 
worms occasionally in summer by sprinkling the bushes with cresylic soap 
suds, made quite strong, and followed with a coating of freshly slacked lime. 
The lime alone, if applied when the foliage is wet with dew or rain, is gener¬ 
ally effectual if thoroughly applied. He believes that gypsum or gas lime 
made fine, will kill the worms. The currant worm is moist, and tender, 
and soft, like the snail and pear slug, and the remedy for the latter used by 
nurserymen is lime well scattered over the trees. 

CANKER WORMS.—A correspondent gives the result of his experience 
and observations on this insect. Tar applied to a belt of coarse paper or 
cloth, placed around the tree, does well at first, but soon forms a crust, 
especially on cool nights, over which the worms pass. Mixed with oil, the 
tar is better, but the difficulty is not removed. Cheap printer’s ink is still 
better. 

APHIDES— Rosin smoke for. —A correspondent of the Revue Horti- 
cole states that he has used successfully for some years, the smoke of rosin 
instead of tobacco smoke, for destroying or repelling aphides on plants. 
Rosin, as all are aware, is very cheap, produces much smoke, and is much 
less offensive than tobacco to most horticulturists. It is worthy of trial on 
such delicate plants as roses, etc., that happen to be infested with aphides. 

ROSE BUG is a buff yellow beetle with shining yellow legs and very 
long black feet. It appears the latter part of June, and remains about a 
month, feeding mostly on the blossoms and leaves of the rose. But at 
times it becomes immensely multiplied in a particular locality, and then 
attacks the grape, apple, cherry, plum, and even some of the wild forest 
trees, stripping them of their fruit and leaves, and sometimes hanging in 
clusters from their limbs, like a swarm of bees. Hand picking, or, early in 
the morning, beating and shaking them from the trees upon sheets, and 
crushing, burning, or otherwise destroying them, is the only remedy for 
them at present known. 


INSECTS AND FARMERS’ ENEMIES. 


307 


LICE ON ROSES.—An English writer says that quassia and soft soap 
will destroy aphides on roses—used by boiling four ounces of quassia chips 
for half an hour in a gallon of water, and when cold and strained adding 
two or more gallons of water and six ounces of soft soap. With this, syr¬ 
inge the bushes. The best, however, is tobacco water, made by pouring a 
gallon of boiling water on four ounces of tobacco, and covering till cold. 
The shoots may be syringed or dipped in it. 

CATERPILLARS.—A quoted writer says: “ I took a pan, large and 

Hat, filled it with burning charcoal, and placed it under a tree—then added 
a pint of rosin, and two ounces of sulphur. The fumes scattered the 
worms.” 


MICE PROTECTOR— Felt as. —There are four principal modes for 
protecting fruit trees from the depredations of mice under snow—namely: 
Clean ground; mounds of smooth earth; treading the snow hard about 
the tree, and hollow cylinders of tin, sheet-iron or felt. The tin cylinders 
are durable ; the felt cheap. The dimensions of the pieces of felt must 
depend on the size of the tree. If the tree is two inches in diameter, a 
breadth of seven inches will go around it; if three inches through, the felt 
must be ten inches. One foot high will answer, but a foot and a half is 
safer. A sheet of felt will make enough for quite an orchard, and may be 
had at a low price of any slate roofer. 

MICE REPELLERS.—Generally a smooth, compact mound of mellow 
earth, free from grass, and made a foot high, 
late in autumn, is best. But sometimes a roll 
of sheet-iron or sheet tin is more convenient. 

Sheet tin is best, and will rust less than iron, 
unless the latter is well coated with gas tar. 

Roofing tin, fourteen by twenty inches, will make to each 
sheet four protectors, seven inches high and three inches in 
Fig. 328. diameter, costing about five cents each. They last many 
years. They may be applied after some snow has fallen, with a little pres¬ 
sure and turning about. Fig. 328 represents one of these protectors, and 
fig. 329 several nested together. 

MICE, MEADOW—How to trap —The most satisfactory way we have 
ever tried of trapping the various spieces of mice that infest meadows, 
grain-fields and fruit-orchards is, to sink several old barrels in the ground, 
about two-thirds their length, at different parts of a field, and bore three 
or four one and a half inch holes in the staves, say six or eight inches from 
the top of the barrel, or at that point of the barrel which will come even 
with the surface of the ground. Then, when the mice run along, they will 
be attracted by the barrel, will enter the holes and jump into the barrel. 




Fig. 329. 



3°8 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


As they cannot climb up the inside of a barrel they can easily be disposed 
of. If a few inches in depth of water should collect in the barrel, field mice 
will plunge into it and be drowned—provided the surface is covered with 
dead grass and leaves. If the top of the barrel is left uncovered, and if 
there should be no water in the barrel, cats will soon learn to take every 
mouse from the trap. In many States wood-meadow mice abound in large 
numbers, in the forest; and they frequently enter adjoining fields and do 
much damage to grain, or to young fruit trees. The prairie meadow 
mouse and the long-haired meadow mouse frequently do a vast amount of 
damage in a few days. But any of them can be trapped readily in a 
barrel. They are all exceedingly prolific. Some females will rear three 
broods or litters of from four to eight each, every season, Hence, every 
female destroyed in the spring may be considered equivalent to twenty 
mice. 

PEA BUGS— Destroying. —A correspondent of the American Farmer 
tried a very simple and satisfactory experiment to prevent bugs in peas. 
Having discovered the egg in each pea while yet in the pod, he gathered 
them as soon as they were ripe and thoroughly dry, and closed them air 
tight in bottles. The insect could not grow without air, and the next 
spring not a bug was to be seen. 

ANTS— Black. —A correspondent of the Country Gentleman , says 
he tried many remedies for black ants without any success. His ground 
being gravelly, he could not makes holes with the crowbar to entrap them; 
tin cylinders, sunk in the earth, containing molasses, they went into—help¬ 
ing themselves with the molasses and crawling out again. Tar around his 
trees became crusted in one day, and they crawled over it. They seemed 
to care nothing for all his attempts to get rid of them. He at length pre¬ 
sented them a bill for collection , for damages done, and that answered com¬ 
pletely. Chickens completely routed them, the coops being placed about 
the garden walks. In one week, the last ant disappeared. 

ANTS— Red, how to destroy. —Take a white china plate, and spread 
a thin covering of common lard over it, and place it on the floor or shelf 
infested by troublesome insects; you will be pleased with the result. Stirring 
them up every morning is all that is necessary to set the trap again. 

CHICKEN MITES— Remedy for. —Take common leaf tobacco, as 
much as the user may think necessary, and make a strong tea, letting it boil 
some time so as to get all the strength from the tobacco; then sprinkle the 
tea all over and about the place where the mites are, and if the first ap¬ 
plication is not sufficient, use in same manner a second time; but the first 
time is almost always effectual. 

RABBITS GNAWING TREES.—Let me repeat it, for my neighbor 


INSECTS AND FARMERS’ ENEMIES. 


309 


says several of his fine young apple trees have been ruined lately by the 
rabbits gnawing them: Take thick lime whitewash and thin it with strong 
tobacco juice . A bucket full will serve 200 trees, and a man can make it 
and put it on in half a day. It is effectual, for I have tried it. 

GAS TAR FOR INSECTS.—Humphrey Howland, of Aurora, N. Y., 
has found gas tar the most efficient agent for destroying the common 
orchard caterpillar. It is applied by means of a swab on a pole, and so 
powerful are its effects that the slightest touch the insects receive from the 
pungent and corrosive liquid kills them instantly. 

TURNIP FLY.—This insect often proves very troublesome by eating 
the plants when they first appear. One remedy is to push the plants by 
manure, as already mentioned; another is to make a smooth surface to the 
land, either by fine pulverization or rolling. We often observe the crop de¬ 
stroyed on cloddy portions of the field where this insect finds a ready hiding- 
place ; while on lighter parts of the same field, where the harrow has left a 
smooth surface and no clods, the crop entirely escapes. A cultivator of 
the common flat turnip always succeeds in preventing the attacks of the flyby 
first covering the ground with old straw and burning it before sowing the seed. 
This could not be adopted for large fields, but is only applicable to small 
patches. The same result occurs on new land which has been burned Over 
in clearing. 

WHEAT MIDGE, better known as the weevil, is by far the most de¬ 
structive of all our insects. They begin to make their appearance a little 
before the middle of June, 
and for over a month the 
female is busily engaged 
in placing her eggs be¬ 
tween the chaffs of the 
i . rr»i Fig 331.—Grain Weevil, 

wheat ears. They are & 

most active in a moist atmosphere, and cannot 
endure a dry one. 

In regard to remedies, none can be guaranteed, and every farmer knows 
that only by late sowing can he prevent his wheat from being headed and 
in bloom, till the season has passed for the weevil to deposit its eggs there¬ 
in ; but in attempting to save his wheat from the weevil by postponing 
from the best period, he is liable to have an inferior crop. Yet it is in the 
power of every farmer to do much towards diminishing the numbers of 
this insect. Whenever the screenings of the fanning-mill abound with the 
yellow larvae of the weevil, they should be burned, or fed under cover to 
the poultry or swine; they should never be thrown out in the open air to 
mature, as they there will, into a swarm of flies, to live at the expense of 




Fig. 330.—Wheat Midge 
flying. 


3io 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



the wheat the following summer. The wheat stubble every year should be 
turned under with the plow, so deep that in their efforts to work their way 
up to the surface the following year, they will become exhausted and perish. 

The Hessian Fly instead of taking up its abode in the wheat heads, and 

living on the kernels, like the wheat weevil, makes its attack at the root and 

lower part of the stalks, thus destroying not only the seed, but also the 

whole plant. The Hessian fly resembles a musquito, but is 

somewhat smaller. They hatch in about a week, and the 

small worm crawls down the sheath of the leaf to its base 

at the crown of the root below the surface of the earth, 

where it remans, living upon the juice of the plant, without 

wounding it, but causing it to wither, turn yellow and finally 

. „ die. The Hessian fly is everywhere followed up and de_ 

Fig. 332. Hes- , . ... J . .. 

sian Fly. stroyed by two parasitic insects resembling small ants of a 

black color. There are two generations of the Hessian fly each year, one 

coming in May and the other in September, and it is only on fall-sowed wheat 

that this insect depredates to any very serious extent. Where spring wheat 

is exclusively cultivated, the insect never makes its appearance. 

There are a number of other insects which produce a diseased 

appearance in the ripening grain, 
somewhat similar to that of the Hessian 
fly—one infests wheat, two of them 
infest barley, and another attacking rye. 
jj| One of these insects, fig. 333, repre¬ 
sents a female greatly magnified, and 
the result of their attack is so near 
alike that of the fly, that many believe 
them to be one and the same. But in 
this they are mistaken. These insects 
Fig 333 are named and distinguished from each 

Barley and Joint-worm Fly. Other as follows: 

THE BLACK-LEGGED, OR MASSACHUSETTS BARLEY FLY.— 



They attack the barley and almost destroy the crop. 

THE JOINT-WORM FLY is a great pest; attacks wheat, and is very 
destructive. 

THE RYE FLY attacks rye and does considerable damage to a crop. 

THE YELLOW-LEGGED OR NEW YORK BARLEY FLY is a great 
pest to barley, and in some portions of the country does great damage. 

The only remedy that we can advise, is to cut the grain so high up that 
most of the worms will be left in the stubble of the field, and then at some 
dry time in the autumn, setting fire to and burning this stubble. 


INSECTS AND FARMERS* ENEMIES. 


3 “ 


THE YELLOWS is a very destructive and contagious disease, mostly 
confined to certain portions of the country, or such as receive trees from in¬ 
fected districts. It first shows itself by the premature ripening of fruit, 
two or three weeks sooner than usual; afterwards, small, wire-like shoots 
are commonly thrown out from the larger branches, the tree dwindles and 
finally dies. There is no known remedy, and the first thing to do when the 
disease makes its appearance, is to dig it up and burn it, planting no other 
tree on the site. Good cultivation and fertile soil is the best preventive. 
CHINCH BUG is the great pest to the wheat growers of the Southern 
and Western States. Every one knows this insect. It 
is an old friend to every farmer. Not being satisfied 
with doing all the damages it can to the wheat crop, 
but as soon as that is harvested, these bugs migrate to 
the nearest field of Indian corn and doing the same 
destructive work over again. Their smell and flavor 
Fig. 334 - Chinch Bug. are so disgusting that birds do not molest them, and no 
remedy for them has yet been discovered. 

THE ANGOUMOIS MOTH, one of the most destructive insects in 
wheat, oats, barley, Indian corn, etc., is to be 
found in the Southern States. It only feeds 
upon ripe grain, attacking it in the field be¬ 
fore harvest, and continuing its operations in 
the mow and out-door stacks, but being most 
destructive in bins or granaries, flouring mills 
and storehouses. The most effective method 
Fig- 335 - Angoumois Moth. 0 f destroying them is to subject the infested 
grain to the heat of about 190 degrees Fahr. without losing its germinating 
powers, and this will kill all the insets and worms in it. 






THEGRAIN 
APHIS is a species 
of plant louse. No 
remedy is yet known 
for this pest. Fortu¬ 
nately nature has 
provided a number 
of other insects, 
which are its invet¬ 
erate foes, which 
slay and feed upon it. Among the enemies of the Fig. 337. Grain Aphis- 
aphis is the lady bug. the win S less female - 

In the cultivation of Indian com, the worst enemy we encounter is the 


Fig. 336 - 

Grain Aphis—the winged female. 




312 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


cut-worm, which by night severs the young plants at or a little above the sur¬ 
face of the earth, and lies concealed during the day slightly within the 

ground. These worms also cut off the cab¬ 
bages, beans, and other young tender plants 
in our gardens. They are so well known 
that any particular description of them and 
their habits is unnecessary. It is one of the 
millers which in July and August most fre¬ 
quently flies in at open windows in the even¬ 
ing, attracted by the light of the lamp. And the other species are similar 
to this, though usually of darker and more sombre colors, with the fore 
wings less diversified with marks and spots. 



Fig* 338 * Cut-corn moth.. 


Dairy and Butter-Making. 



BUTTER-MAKING— Rules for.— i. For making good butter, the 
first thing is to have good sweet pasture, free from weeds or any growth 
that will give a bad taste to the milk. Good upland grass is better than 
coarse grass growing on wet places. Some dairymen think that limed is 
better than unlimed land, but this is a matter of minor importance. Others 
regard the practice of sowing plaster in spring, and repeating it early in 
autumn, as tending to sweeten grass. 

2. Good, well selected cows are the next requisite. 

3. Perfect cleanliness from beginning to end, is indispensable—the most 
so, perhaps, of any one thing. No dirt or dust must drop into the milk, 
for which reason the animals should have a clean place to lie on, and never 
be allowed to stand in mud or manure. Vessels all thoroughly washed— 
scalded whenever necessary to preserve perfect sweetness—including pails, 
pans, pots, churns, workers, and tubs or firkins. They must first be washed 
clean with cold water; for if hot water is used first it will curdle the milk in 
the cracks or corners, and prevent its washing out. 

4. A perfectly pure air is of great importance. Bad odors will taint 
butter. The dairy house therefore should be far away from manure yards, 
and everything else of the kind. Keep tobacco smoke off the premises. 

5. Let the butter be well worked, so as to press out all the buttermilk. 
It is impossible to have a good article if this is not done. Perhaps this is 

313 





314 brand’s cyclopedia. 

the most common cause of failure. If much milk is left in, it soon ferments 
and makes rancid and worthless butter. 

6. In laying down for winter, use new firkins—never use them a second 
time; and pots and jars must never be used, if they ever had bad butter 
in them, or pickles, or anything else that will taint them; the taint can never 
be wholly removed. 

7. The best dairy salt is important. Butter in hot weather must be cov¬ 
ered and excluded from the air with saturated brine. 

ANNOTTO— Choice of. —Annotto should be chosen of a good flame 
color; brighter in the middle than on the outside. It should feel soft and 
smooth, and have a good consistence. It should possess a strong smell. 

BUTTER—“ Why don’t it come ? ”—It is difficult to manage cream 
in cold weather, so as not to have the churning occupy an unreasonable 
length of time, to the injury of the quality of the butter. A correspondent 
says, “ that the following are some of the causes that delay the butter from 
coming. The milk has been kept too cold, which prevented the cream from 
souring. Sour and sweet cream may have been mixed. The cream from 
farrow cows may have been mixed with cream from those that are not far¬ 
row. The cream may not have been sufficiently warmed, and the cows 
may have lacked salt while fed on dry food. The milk may have stood too 
long before it began to change. These should all be guarded against.” 

BUTTER— Philadelphia. —One reason that we have seen assigned for 
the acknowledged superiority of Philadelphia butter, is the care farmers in 
that section take to remove every cow whose cream, partaking of an oily 
character, does not separate freely from the milk, but is what dairy-women 
call ropy , and will never harden into anything but oily butter. The editor 
of the Rural Advertiser says he once owned one such cow, and her milk 
spoiled the butter of twenty cows. 

BUTTER— Packing. —Let the firkin contain as much as possible_that 

is, pack as solid as the work can be done. 

BUTTER WORKERS.—The following two different forms are adopted 
for butter workers, and are variously prefered by different manufacturers. 
One consists of a brake or lever, fastened at one end by a swivel joint, so 
that the face of the brake may 
be brought down with force 
on the butter, which rests on 
a trough-table, which is best 
if with a marble top. Another 
form has a grooved roller, 
similarly attached, which is used by rolling and pressing Fi S* 34 1 * 
the butter at one operation. The former is represented by fig. 340, and the 




Fig. 340. 


DAIRY AND BUTTER-MAKING. 


315 


latter by fig. 341, which also shows the pail into which the buttermilk flows. 

BUTTER— Winter. —The different modes of treating the cream and 
milk in winter to make good butter are greatly inferior in their results to the 
effects of giving the cows themselves a regular supply of sugar beets or car¬ 
rots, the latter, as we think, being much the best. They will nearly double 
the ordinary amount of milk, and increase its richness, while the butter it 
produces has that yellowness and fine flavor peculiar to that commonly 
made from pastures. It is always a loss of quantity for butter to come too 
soon by churning; but sometimes its gathering is too long delayed after 
the minute granules of butter are formed. The process maybe often hast¬ 
ened by dropping into the churn at this period a small lump of butter, 
which serves as a nucleus around which these granules quickly coagulate. 

Another butter-maker gives the following as his experience: I have seen 
and read much in your papers about butter-making in winter, but I think I 
have a better way than I have seen yet. I make as much butter in winter, 
and of as rich color, as in the best butter times of summer. I stable my 
cows all cold and stormy days (of course nights;) have plenty of water in 
the yard; feed them three times a day and grain once, which is done in the 
morning after they have eaten their fodder. I feed ground black-eye mar¬ 
rowfat peas, scalded with hot water and stand three or four hours before 
feeding. I feed about two quarts at a time, mixed with hot water about as 
thick as thick gruel, and after standing three or four hours it will be as thick 
as corn meal pudding, and measure four quarts. Peas fed this way, espe¬ 
cially marrowfats, are worth double the amount of any other grain you can 
feed, and will make cows give more milk. Well, I have told you the feed¬ 
ing and care of the gentlemen’s department, and will now say a little about 
the care and management of the cream and milk in the ladies’ department, 
which is quite as essential as any. Strain your milk, and not fill your pans 
more than half full, for if filled it takes too long to get sour. Then set them on a 
stove with a slow fire and heat them well through; the cream will rise and the 
pans will be fit to skim two days sooner than though they were set away cold. 
The cream will rise quick and sweet; therefore you will have rich and sweet 
butter. Generally the cream rises quick, and is not sour enough to chum, 
but will sour enough in your cream pail by churning time. Before you 
churn set your pail by the stove and heat it well through, and the butter will 
come half an hour sooner than though it was churned cold; and before 
churning scald your chum with hot water. I have tried this way of making 
butter until I am confident there is no better way. 

BUTTER, rancid, boiled in water with a portion of charcoal (say a 
tenth part,) will be entirely divested of its rancidity, and may be used for 
cooking purposes, although its fine flavor will not be restored for the table. 


316 brand’s cyclopedia. 

CREAM GAUGE AND MILK LACTOMETER.—The cream gauge 

(fig. 342,) with figures toward the top 
only, will show the exact percentage of 
cream; and the lactometer (fig. 344,) 
will show the density or specific gravity, as 
shown in fig. 343, the per cent, glass filled 
with pure water, lets the lactometer sink to 
the water line. The fig. 343 containing 
water rendered dense by the addition of 
ingredients, stands at the skim-milk point; 
and the other cream gauge, with a little 
salt added to the water, floats the lacto¬ 
meter at the pure 
milk figure. Hence 

the lactometer, of 344 - Lactometer, 
itself, is of little value in detecting rascality. Skimming, watering, and 
adulterations, are best shown by the test-glasses, which are only indicators, 
and need to be backed up by legal proofs, which are usually ocular demon¬ 
strations. Still if the lactometer and cream-gauge both show a patron’s 
milk to be deficient when delivered at the factory, and specimens taken at 
his home from the can—which is watched and known to contain no skim¬ 
med milk or water—tries all right, it would be difficult for an intelligent 
jury to refuse to bring in a verdict against him for either skimming or 
watering. 

MILKING YOUNG COWS.—A recent agricultural writer has said that 
young cows, the first year they give milk, may be made with careful milk¬ 
ing and good keeping, to give milk almost any length of time deemed desir¬ 
able ; but if allowed to dry up early in the fall, they will, if they have a calf 
at the same season, dry up at the same time each succeeding year, and 
nothing but extra feed will prevent it, and that but for a short time. 

MILKING STOOL.—The stool represented in the annexed figure is 
described at length by a correspondent of an agricultural paper, which he 
says has given decided satisfaction to all concerned, viz : the milker, cow, 
milk, stool, clothing or pants’ legs, manure, milk-maid, butter-maker, etc. 

SITZ ? It is made of a half inch board two feet and a half 

^ 'J'jr S long, and ten inches wide. An inch board four inches 
wide is nailed or screwed across one end on the lower 
Fl g. 345 - Milking Stool. s id e? an( j ano ther across the other end on the upper 
side. These cross pieces serve to stiffen the stool and brace the legs. The 
milker when using it sits over the single leg with his face towards the other 
end and his feet on each side of it. The milking pail is placed on this 
















DAIRY AND BUTTER-MAKING. 317 

other end, and the stool placed in position under the cow, and milking 
continued as in the common process. 

MILKING IN SILENCE.—As the Farmers’ Club at West-Comwall, 
Ct., one of the members observed that no talking should be allowed while 
milking was going on. Another said he had discharged a man because he 
would talk and interrupt the milking in his dairy, and in three days the in¬ 
crease of milk was equal to the man’s wages. 

MILKING CLEAN.—Experiment has shown that the last milk drawn 
from the cow, is from ten to twelve times richer than the first drawn por¬ 
tions, or contains that proportion of cream. 

MILKING —Regularity in.— Each cow should have a steady milker 
be milked as fast as possible, and all the milk drawn. We are satisfied that 
there is a loss of one-third in many dairies by the lazy, hap-hazard way in 
which cows are milked. We have known persons to sit down in the milk¬ 
ing-yard, and go through with some long yarn, and be from ten to twenty 
minutes milking one cow, when it should be done in less than five. 


Household Pests and Remedies. 


RATS AND MICE— Keeping out. —A gentleman in Maryland writes, 
that five years ago he perfectly excluded rats and mice from a brick stable, 
by laying the sleepers flat on the ground, and then filling between them with 
cement to their face, and before drying in the least, nailing hemlock plank 
firmly on them. No rat or mouse ever gnawed through that floor. The 
basement of his house had the floor laid in a similar manner, using matched 
inch pine instead of hemlock. To keep them from entering behind the 
lathing in the upper walls, three inches of cement was laid on the floor 
between the studs. He adds, that barns may be kept tolerably clear by 
raising the floor a foot and a half from the ground. Cats will run under 
and catch anything there. If laid close to the ground without cement, the 
floor becomes a perfect warren for all sorts of vermin. 

RATS— Driving off the. —The Farm Journal gives an experiment 
performed with chlorine gas. A dish of manganese and muriatic acid, for 
producing this gas, was placed under the garret floor, and on the lathing 
below it, the floor board being replaced. The gas, being heavy, descended 
in every direction between plastering and walls, and being exceedingly pun¬ 
gent, produced a “ great sensation.” “ All night long, it would seem as if 
Bedlam had broken loose between the partitions.” They decamped, big 
and little, and stayed away three months. Chloride is a poisonous gas, 
unless in minute portions, and great caution is required not to breath much 
of it. It should be well confined within the walls. It is an admirable puri¬ 
fier, at least. The best rat trap or rat poison we ever found, is a good cat. 

RAT TRAP.—A good one may be made by filling a smooth kettle to 
within six inches of the top with water, and covering the surface with chaff. 
The first chap who gets in makes an outcry because he cannot get out, 
and the rest coming to see what the matter is, share his fate. 

A writer in Moore's Rural , says he fills a swill-barrel full of good swill— 
the rats soon learn to come and eat. After a few days, six or eight inches 
of the swill are dipped out, when they still find their way into the barrel, 
but not out. Sixteen rats were thus caught in one night. 

Another, and one of the best of which, is an oblong box, one end and 
cover of which is in one piece, and when set rising above the trap as shown 

318 


HOUSEHOLD PESTS AND REMEDIES. 


319 


In fig. 346, and held up by a cord passing from the top through a smooth 
hole in the rear end to the inside, along the corner, around a smooth peg 

^ _ j \ to where it is attached to the bait, and 

l' so f as tened that it will drop at the first 

M _ 11 nibbling. A still better form is a trap M &.lu~ _ 

Fig. 346. Rat with both ends thus raised (fig. 347,) Fig. 347. Another Rat 
Trap * the cords passing through a cross- Trap * 

piece in the middle, and arranged so that both ends shall drop at the 
same instant. These animals being cautious of entering holes or corners, 
are more easily drawn into a box open at both ends. Another mode of 
catching them is by means of steel traps, set with suitable bait. Some 
individuals among them, however, are too cunning to be caught in any 
trap, and sometimes evince a degree of intelligence in this direction that 
seems almost incredible. The writer once made several fruitless efforts to 
catch an unusually cunning rat. A steel trap was placed in a large tin-pan, 
and covered with light bran so as to be entirely concealed; and lest the 
rat should perceive the scent of the hands on the bran, a spoon was used 
for covering. Pieces of toasted cheese were then scattered over the sur¬ 
face. The next morning the cheese was taken, and little tracks were seen 
on all parts of the bran except immediately over the trap, which was 
untouched and unsprung. Trapping rats is a good amusement for ingen¬ 
ious boys; but many would prefer a shorter and easier remedy. Poisoning 
with arsenic generally succeeds well, but requires great caution, and should 
never be adopted where there are small children, as fatal accidents have 
sometimes occurred. Different modes are adopted for using the arsenic; 
it may be rubbed with twice its bulk of lard or butter, or sprinkled on small 
fragments of chicken or turkey, and placed entirely out of the way where 
rats frequent. Another mode is to use fresh caustic potash, sprinkling it 
thinly around their holes and on their paths. It corrodes their feet, which 
they then lick and their tongues are corroded. They dislike such treat¬ 
ment and disappear from the premises. The best remedies which we have 
found after long years of trial, are a few good cats. If not fed so high as 
to make them lazy nor so low as to dishearten them, they will be sure to 
clear every rat from the premises where they can have access. 

MICE.—Nearly all the preceding remedies are sufficient when used for 
mice, especially the cats. The small traps sold in the shops, answer a good 
purpose if owners are willing to take the trouble to set them. 

SKUNKS.—These animals frequent the vicinity of houses for the pur¬ 
pose of stealing eggs, chickens, etc. On more than one occasion we have 
had them enter the house cellar through the windows. They are very easily 
caught in the box traps already described, with an egg or piece of meat for 











320 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


bait—when they may be carried out into the open fields and shot. They 
are also easily poisoned by breaking the end of an egg, dropping in a little 
arsenic, and placing it where it will be accessible to them, and beyond the 
reach of any domestic animals. 

HOUSE FLIES.—Various traps have been employed for flies on the de¬ 
coy principle, but these usually do more harm than good by constantly in¬ 
viting new comers. We know of no remedy entirely satisfactory. A good 
deal may be accomplished by keeping rooms dark; or by driving them out 
and placing frames of mosquito netting in the windows. By not allowing 
dishes of food to stand long in dining room or kitchen, but placing them 
speedily in the cellar closets or safes, the tendency to draw flies will be les¬ 
sened. We have known a dwelling to be kept nearly clear of them for an 
entire summer by. a half-grown cat that had a special fancy for catching 
them. We have also known the owner of a house to keep his rooms 
almost free from them, by spending a few minutes daily in catching them 
with his hand. He always struck towards their heads, sweeping his hand 
against the wall, and scarcely ever failing to make a capture. They were 
then thrown in a basin of soap-suds held in the left hand. One of the best 
remedies is to poison with cobalt, which may be had 
at the shops. Make one or more small basins of sheet- 
iron or rusty tin, by bending up the sides of a piece a 
few inces square, as in fig. 348, mix the cobalt with 
water and place it in these basins. The flies eat, drop 



Fig. 348. Pan for Fly 
Poison. 


dead, and are swept up from the floor. The sole reason for using rusty iron 
for the basins is to render them forbidding in appearance and to prevent 
accidents. If placed in clean porcelain basins, children may be in danger 
of becoming poisoned by idly partaking of the mixture. 

FLY-TRAP.—A very good fly-trap is made by filling a teacup nearly full 
with suds, and covering with thich paper smeared on the under side with 
molasses. Cut a hole large enough for the flies to crawl in easily. They 
are best caught in a rather dark place. 

ANTS.—Various modes have been adopted to kill them. Among these 
is to coat pieces of brown paper with molasses, sprinkle thinly with arsenic, 
and place them where they will be accessible to the ants, or the rough 
sheet iron pans already described, may be partly filled with sugar and water 
and a little arsenic. Such remedies should be carefully kept beyond the 
reach of children. Another mode of killing them is to wash a sponge 
freshly, to open its pores, and then sprinkle fine sugar into these pores. 
The ants will enter in large numbers, and may be killed by plunging into 
scalding water. It may be questioned whether the employment of these 
remedies will not invite the ants in large numbers as well as kill them; 





HOUSEHOLD PESTS AND REMEDIES. 


321 


and whether using them out of doors would not be better. It is said that 
red ants may be repelled from shelves by rubbing 
with fine salt. A skillful housewife informs us that 
she can exclude ants with certainty, from cake, sweet- 
Fi g- 349 - meats and other articles specially attractive to them ? 

only by placing them upon a table, each leg of which stands in a vessel of 
water. Doubtless the same result might be attained by placing the articles 
in a pan or other vessel resting on pebbles in another larger one containing 
water, as shown in section in the annexed figure 349. 

BED-BUG (Cimex lectularius.) —This sometimes proves an excessive 
annoyance, and has been found by many difficult to extirpate. Travelers 
(the writer among the number,) have sometimes preferred sitting up all 
night to attempting to sleep in certain badly kept hotels in remote countries. 
The Irishman consoled himself and his friends after a night of fruitless 
attempt at sleep—“ Indade, I did quite as well as the bugs, for not one of 
them slept a wink all night.” Among the many exterminators proposed 
for these insects, we have found two that have proved quite efficient. One 
of these is to dissolve a small quantity of corrosive sublimate in about twenty 
times its bulk of alcohol, and apply it with a brush to every part of the bed¬ 
steads and rooms likely to be infested. Two or three thorough applica¬ 
tions usually accomplish the purpose. A more efficient and complete rem¬ 
edy is to beat up quicksilver with the white of an egg until a thorough inter¬ 
mixture is effected. A twentieth part in bulk of quicksilver is sufficient. 
Apply it thoroughly with a quill to every crack and crevice. We have never 
had a failure after the first application. Kerosene has been more recently 
tried, and we are assured on good authority is a perfect remedy. 

MOTHS.—Keep the furs or woolens in trunks or drawers made of red 
cedar wood. Small pieces of gum camphor rolled in paper and placed 
among the furs have proved a good remedy. Moths which have already 
entered garments or carpets may be killed by exposure to bright sunshine; 
or they may be steamed to death by placing a moistened coarse cloth, as 
crash towel, upon the substance and passing a hot iron over it. 

MOTHS are effectually excluded from clothes kept in cedar chests, or 
with cedar shingles occasionally laid between the clothes, in wardrobes, 
closets, etc. 

MOTHS IN CARPETS.—Powdered alum is a safeguard against moths 
when applied to every crack in the floor and around the edges, and under 
the baseboard, under a carpet. It is also considered a security against the 
carpet bug. Some ladies powder the whole floor with it before putting 
down a carpet. 

COCKROACHES are killed or repelled by taking equal quantities of 

20 




322 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


red lead and Indian meal, about the consistency of paste, with molasses, 
placing it upon iron plates where vermin are thickest. Borax scattered 
upon the shelves is said to be a good remedy. 

EARTH-WORMS OR ANGLE-WORMS, may be prevented from enter¬ 
ing wells by digging a trench three feet wide, close to the stone work and 
down well into the hard-pan, filling it with gravel, which they will not dig 
through. No top soil should be allowed. 

REMEDY FOR MOLES.—Cut apples or potatoes in pieces about the 
size of a pea, and roll them in strychnine or arsenic. Then make several 
small holes where the moles run, and drop one or more of the pieces in 
each hole. In a short time the moles will disappear. 


Nursery, Orchard and Fruit Garden. 


WORK FOR JANUARY.—Tread the snow about young trees to pre¬ 
vent the gnawing of mice. There are several preventatives against these 
mischievious nuisances, which can be found elsewhere. Rabbits also should 
be attended to, and, like the mice, we give elsewhere directions. Provide 
surface drainage for water caused by thaws or rain. 

Hardy young trees may be primed in the winter, but all large wounds 
should be carefully covered. 

Cut grafts and pack them away. For directions see elsewhere. 

See to it that all your fences are in order, and that cattle cannot intrude 
on your premises. 

If you desire young trees, now is the time to give your orders, and be 
careful to deal with only first-class and reliable nurserymen. 

Root grafting is now in order. 

Spread manure over the surface about young trees, to enrich the land, 
and protect from the winter blasts. 

Orchards should now be accurately registered, and every name and 
variety should be taken down. 

Forcing strawberries. —Begin with a rather low temperature, or about 
55 0 and as growth advances, gradually increase to 6o° and 65°. Give a 
good supply of water but avoid flooding. Grapes for forcing, now coming 
into leaf, the temperature should be kept at 6o° to 65°. Equalize by pinch¬ 
ing the shoots on different portions of the vine, especially on grapes in pots, 
retarding the upper shoots and encouraging the lower. 

As to grape cuttings, these should at first be kept rather cool, and after¬ 
wards the heat gradually increased. 

For Southern States read directions for February. 

WORK FOR FEBRUARY.—Follow the directions for January, most of 
which apply to the present month. 

Cut off and destroy all caterpillars’ eggs on the shoots of orchards. Root 

grafting of the apple may 
now be performed. Top- 
dress with manure the surface 
of orchards wherever they are 
323 



Fig- 35 °* 


324 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


not growing with sufficient vigor, or which do not make annual shoots a 
foot or more long. 

Provide or make labels, stakes, ladders, etc., and these can be made on 
stormy days. 

All hardy trees may be pruned any time during this month; but those 
inclining to be tender, such for instance as the peach, should not be pruned 
before next month. But all pruning, which is intended to promote growth, 
should by all means be done before the buds swell in spring. 

Grapes in early heated houses will now begin to swell their buds, and 
should be syringed night and morning. A temperature of 50° to 55 0 at 
night is sufficient for the first two weeks. Thin the branches, but do not 
handle the berries. 

For Southern States the directions for March and April will apply. 

WORK FOR MARCH.—Finish all uncompleted work mentioned in 
January and February. 

Prepare for setting out trees. All prominent buds on the stock should 
be rubbed off at the same time, as this will lessen the subsequent labor 
when the shoots begin to start, and prevent that check in the tree, which is 
always given when any amount of foliage is removed after the growth has 
commenced. 

Hardy grapevines may be pruned if the work has 
not already been attended to. Also 
grape eyes may be started in hot-beds. 

They are, or should be, placed in pots 
Fig- 35 1 - about half or two-thirds of an inch Flg ‘ 35 2 ‘ 

deep. 

The Cherry should now be grafted, but in order that it should be a 
perfect success, it should be done at least a week or two before the buds 
begin to swell. Plums should be grafted immediately afterwards. Finish 
cutting all grafts before buds swell. In case you desire to raise stock from 
cherry stones, they should be planted as early as possible, and as soon as 
the ground thaws 

Shorten back peach trees, as described elsewhere. 

In grape houses, grapes under heat will need constant attention. Pinch 
laterals, thin bunches, if too many, and give air and plenty of water. 

For Southern States read directions under April and May. 

WORK FOR APRIL.—Prepare for setting out trees. 

Shorten back before the buds expand. 

Transplant strawberries. —Early in the spring is the best time for set¬ 
ting out strawberries, and if the work is well done, they will bear a moder¬ 
ate crop the present season, and a heavy one the next. 




NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 325 

Grapes, raspberries, etc., laid down and covered last autumn, should 
have the covering, if not already done, removed as early as possible. 

Set out currant, gooseberries and quince cuttings as early as possible; 
also seedling apples, young pear trees, etc. 

As we directed in last month, grafting the cherry and plum should always 
be done before the buds begin to expand. Young trees which were budded 
last summer should have the stocks cut back. 

Plant all sorts of fruit-tree seeds on the very commencement of their 
sprouting or as soon as the earth thaws. Peach stems may be left later 
than others, as they do not start so soon. 

Hardy grapes, if not already pruned, may still be cut freely. Bleeding, as 
it is termed, will not injure the vines. 

Level down the small mounds thrown around the young trees last autumn, 
to protect against mice and winds, and spade in winter mulching. 

Manure strawberries. 

Prune old wood out of currant bushes and spade in manure, and the size 
of the berries will be enlarged. 

Pinch in young shoots of grapes in green-houses towards the end of the 
month, and thin bunches. Grapes in hot-houses need uniform warmth 
and air. For the Southern States read the directions for May and June. 

WORK FOR MAY.—Fruit trees may still be set out, if dug early, and 
kept from growing in a cool place, even if the leaves have com¬ 
menced growing, but the shoots should never be cut back after 
the swelling of the buds. The soil should be kept clean and mel¬ 
low about young trees. All useless shoots should be rubbed from 
the stocks of young trees which have been grafted, or which were 
budded last summer and headed down. This should be done at 
the time of their starting, as removing the foliage in large quanti¬ 
ties always checks growth. 

Stake up young trees; tie to stakes before much of the young 
wood has been formed. Also, as soon as the young shoot from 
the inserted bud grows a few inches, it should be tied up to 
the stump of the stock, as shown in the engraving, which has 
been left for this purpose, unless already quite straight and upright. 

Commence thinning fruit on overbearing trees. Attend to the weeds. 
Less labor will not eradicate them, than in a few months. 

Insects, as warm weather advances, will increase and become numerous. 
Destroy them early before they commit serious damage. Kill orchard cat- 
erpillers by swabbing with soap-suds or lime wash. 

Give air, warmth and moisture to vines in houses. 

Clear out borers from apple trees, and commence the destruction of the 



326 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 



curculio. See for directions elsewhere. For Southern States, read direc¬ 
tions for June. 

WORK FOR JUNE.—Continue the operations of last month wherever 
necessary or useful. Destroy weeds and cultivate the soil, keeping it clean 
and mellow wherever young trees are planted. 

Follow the directions of last month in respect to rubbing off the starting 

shoots on the stocks of fruit trees that were budded last summer or grafted 

this spring, and tie up the new shoots. If the young trees are not yet 

staked, it should be attended to at once. See directions last 

month. Make a war upon the curculio. Destroy aphides, as 

soon as they appear, by strong soap-suds, etc., and the currant 

worm by dusting with hellebore. Keep a lookout for the borer at 

the foot of the apple tree, and destroy all that can be discovered. 

Examine peach tree, for peach grub. Cut off the twigs of the 

plum trees as soon as they show any indication of the black- 

knot. Caterpillar’s nests should be searched for and destroyed. 

Fire blight in the pear is a formidable disease, and the affected 

Mode of limbs should be cut far back on its first appearance and the limbs 

Staking cut 0 ff should be buried and burned. For every tree that dies 
up Young 

Trees, from that disease two more trees should be planted out. Give 
slugs a dusting of dry lime, or dash them off with dry and or powdered 
soil. Thin out fruit on overbearing trees. 

Shorten back new shoots on the blackberry. Rub off early in the 
month all supernumerary shoots on out-door grape vines. Thin berries or 
vines in heated grape houses, and pinch back laterals on those in cold 
houses. Keep up a mild, damp atmosphere. 

Strawberry beds should be kept moist. Larger fruit and heavier crops 
will result. 

It is now an excellent time to shape a permanent form to the heads of 
young trees. 

Mulch the surface of the earth around newly transplanted cherry trees. 

WORK FOR JULY.—Continue the operation of cultivation to prevent 
the growth of weeds and the formation of a crust on the soil. Mulch all 
young trees when cultivation cannot be given. Thin out 
supernumerary branches on grapevines, pinching back 
canes and bearing shoots that are becoming too long, and 
thin the bunches and take out imperfect berries. 

Perform the operation of summer layering the grape 
early in the month. These layers will consequently be 
furnished with plenty of roots from the joints before win- 
Fig. 355.— Layering ter, when they may be cut from the parent vine and 
taken up, each layer usually forming two plants. 



Grapes. 




NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 


32/ 


Transplant strawberries. Continue the operation of pinching back the 
side and end shoots of blackberries. Cut down the old canes of raspber¬ 
ries as soon as bearing season is over, and then thin out the new ones. 
Commence budding all trees that have well-formed or matured buds—the 
cherry usually first, then the plum and pear. Watch for insects. Keep a 
good lookout for peach worms and apple-borers, and cut out black knots, 
and cut back fire-blighted branches, as directed for June. 

Secure choice cherrystones for planting, by mixing the washed seeds with 
moist sand before they have dried. 

Give a good supply of air to ripening fruit in heated grape-houses, which 
will be the means of securing both color and flavor. Thin the forming 
bunches in cold houses, and remove defective or diseased berries and 
crowded shoots, and guard against cold currents of air. 

WORK FOR AUGUST.—Continue the operations of last month. De¬ 
stroy weeds; keep the ground mellow about young trees; pinch off shoots 
that are becoming too long in young trees and blackberry bushes; mulch 
trees that are suffering from drouth, and transplant strawberries according 
to directions for July. 

Watch for insects, and especially for aphides or plant lice, which increase 
rapidly this month. Destroy the latter with strong soap-suds or very strong 
tobacco water. Keep a constant lookout for the black knot on the plum, 
and fire blight on the pear tree, and at once cut off all the affected parts. 

Continue budding, finish cherry, plum and standard pear, and commenc¬ 
ing early on apples, mahalebs, peaches, and quinces may be budded 
towards the close of the month. Keep an eye on budded stocks, and re¬ 
move ligatures as soon as they cut the bark. 

Gather early pears for house-ripening. Be careful that you do not bruise 
them. 

WORK FOR SEPTEMBER.—Finish the operation of budding the 
peach and quince stocks, and timely remove the ligatures. Keep new 
strawberry beds entirely free from weeds, and unless intended for increasing 
the plants, cut off the runners. Prune out the useless wood of young trees, 
and give a good shape to the forming heads, the growth being now nearly 
at an end no check will be given to the tree. 

Keep the soil of the orchard ground in good condition. 

WORK FOR OCTOBER.—The work of transplanting should now 
commence. In transplanting, the soil should be naturally dry, sheltering 
the young trees from wind, and staking them firmly, or by making small 
compact embankments about the stems. See April for more complete 
directions for transplanting. 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


\ 2 & 


f 

V 


Fig. 356. 
Mode of bank¬ 
ing against new¬ 
ly set trees. 


The chief and most important work for this month is gathering fruit. 

Full directions will be found elsewhere for this work, and 
should be carefully followed. Grapes should be gathered, 
and they should be well ripened. For keeping grapes, see 
elsewhere. 

Top dressing orchards may be performed any time dur¬ 
ing this month. 

Grape-vines in green-houses should have their growing 
shoots pinched in, and vines in cold houses, as soon as the 
fruit is picked, should be thrown open and exposed to the 
air, to finish the ripening of the wood. 

WORK FOR NOVEMBER.—Transplanting may be continued any 
time during the present month, when the weather is mild and not freezing. 
Carefully register in a book the names of every sort in the orchard, and 
this record may be referred to at any time in the future when the labels 
have disappeared. Young trees in windy places should be either staked 
or stiffened against the wind by a mound of earth. See October. For 
directions to exclude mice from young trees, see elsewhere. 

Trees received late from a distance may be heeled in for spring plant¬ 
ing. If received in a frozen condition, bury them immediately in mellow 
earth, and the frost will be gradually abstracted from them without injury. 

Protect half-hardy raspberries by bending down and covering slightly 
with earth. Cover strawberry beds with coarse 
stiff straw, or with corn stalks or evergreens. 
Grape-layers should be separated from the vine 
and pruned, and packed away in moss, or heeled 
in earth. 

Cuttings of quinces, gooseberries, and currants, 
should be made and treated in the same way. Cut grafts for spring use, 
carefully label each sort, and pack away for winter. Stocks for root¬ 
grafting are to be taken up and packed in boxes in cellar for winter use. 

Plough between nursery-rows to carry off surplus water in winter. 

WORK FOR DECEMBER.—Carefully examine the directions for No¬ 
vember, and promptly finish up all jobs not completed in season. Com¬ 
plete the cutting of grafts; apply winter mulching to young trees ; top- 
dress with manure the ground about young trees as need enriching; collect 
stakes, tallies, labels, etc., which are out of use, which tie up and put care¬ 
fully away. Examine the directions for work for January, and perform any 
operations that may be required. 

In early grape houses the vines pruned last month will begin to swell 
their buds. Give during the present month a regular and moderate tem- 



Fig. 357. Bending down 
Raspberries for Covering. 



NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 329 

perature. Prune vines in green-houses and cold houses, and protect the 
latter with a covering of leaves. 

DWARF APPLES.—It is possible that the dwarf apple may become 
more popular than the dwarf pear. It is not liable to the accidents of the 
latter. 

All sorts of apples grow freely on the dwarf stock, and it is not necessary 
to take that particular care in selection, founded on many years of experi¬ 
ence—although some sorts of the apple form handsomer and better shaped 
heads when treated as dwarfs than others. The symmetrical growers should 
be selected, because they make the process of pruning simpler, and more 
easily give the desired shape. 

Common standard apple trees occupy too much room for gardens and 
small places. At the commonly recommended distance, 33 feet, only 40 can 
stand on an acre, and placed at the nearest distance admissible, 25 feet, an 
acre is required for 69 trees. A quarter-acre village garden can therefore 
have only 10 trees at the former, and 17 at the latter named distance, if 
apple trees occupy the whole ground. But dwarf apples may stand about 
four times nearer, giving sixteen times as many trees on the quarter-acre. 
If, therefore, one-half the quarter-acre garden is occupied with dwarf apples, 
85 trees may be planted at eight feet apart, a suitable distance for the Dou- 
cain dwarf, or 150 at six feet apart, the space for the smaller or Paradise 
dwarf. 

The best varieties for dwarf stocks, as a general rule, are those which nat¬ 
urally form a round or oval head. Such will need but little pruning. Among 
these are the Red Astrachan, Jersey Sweet, Porter, Baldwin, Dyer, Monmouth 
Pippin, Summer Rose, Benoni, and Sweet Bough. There are others that in¬ 
cline to grow upright, and need some pruning to prevent their running up¬ 
wards, and to induce spreading; among these are the Northern Spy, Twenty 
Ounce, Lady Apple, Wagoner, Early Strawberry, and Bailey Sweet, all of 
which make handsome dwarfs. There are others again, although not so hand¬ 
some growers, yet the ornamental appearance of the fruit renders them de¬ 
sirable dwarfs, as the Fameuse, Red Canada, Carolina Red June, Munson 
Sweet, etc. There are still others, which grow so irregular that some care would 
be required to make handsome trees of them, such as Fall Pippin, Canada 
Reinette,and Tompkins County King. Dwarf apples should be mostly con¬ 
fined to summer and autumn varieties, in order to furnish a fresh supply for 
the table of the most desirable sorts. 

Winter apples may be most profitably raised in orchards of large trees, 
or purchased in market by the barrel. 

Dwarfs are especially desirable for those who plant new places, and con¬ 
sequently desire an early return. The Paradise Stock will give crops the 


330 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


third year; and the Doucain the fourth, in abundance. A fine young col¬ 
lection of dwarfs, now four years planted, and growing their fifth summer, 
bear much better during an unfavorable season than old orchards. Some of 
the trees are loaded. A Hawthornden is so full that the branches densely 
set with apples lie on the ground with their loads of fruit, now in the second 
year of such profuse bearing. The Doucain trees are about 7 feet high, 
and the paradise 5 to 6 feet. The soil is fertile, and always well cultivated. 

APPLES— For stock. —Never throw away windfalls or poor apples, or 
allow them to waste, no matter how abundant the crop may be. Moderate 
and regular quantities fed to milch cows late in the fall and in winter, will 
improve their condition and appearance, and increase their milk. The 
health of horses will be improved by a portion of this succulent food, when 
confined to hay and grain. The richer sorts of apples are excellent for fat¬ 
tening and keeping store-pigs. Fed to sheep in connection with hay and 
grain, they produce an excellent effect. Provide, therefore, ample dry bins 
in your barn and other cellars for storing these refuse apples, and they will 
save a vast amount of grain. 

APPLES— Thinning. —Remember that it is not more than one-fourth 
the labor to thin out the small, defective, scabby or stung apples, when they 
are quarter grown than to hand-pick and assort them next autumn—and 
the selected specimens which are left have a better chance to grow, and sell 
at a higher price in market. 

FRUIT —Keeping. —Apples packed in calcined plaster rotted very badly 
and quickly. The dry plaster absorbed enough moisture from the apples 
to dampen it and get up a degree of heat sufficient to spoil the fruit. Dry 
earth kept apples in fair condition to appearance, but the flavor was spoiled. 
Buckwheat chaff had been found excellent for packing fruit, as it contains 
very little starch. Wheat bran is objectionable on account of its abund¬ 
ance of starch, which soon moulds and spoils the fruit. Dry forest leaves 
have been used with fair results for packing apples. Oak leaves are among 
the best for this purpose. Several bushels of fall apples having been stolen 
by a hired man, were buried in a large hay mow and then deserted for sev¬ 
eral months. In mid-summer they were discovered and found in a very 
good state of preservation. Taking a hint from this, fifty barrels of winter 
apples are now packed in straw, in a cool dry cellar, as an experiment. 
Apples are so cheap and plenty generally that it costs very little to try an 
experiment, which if successful, may prove of great value. Cellars should 
be ventilated at the bottom, that the whole of the air may be changed. 
A brick taken out from the bottom of the chimney flue makes a good open¬ 
ing for the escape of damp air in a cellar. Dry sand had been successfully 
used for keeping grapes from harvest time till winter* 


NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 


331 



Fi S- 358. 
Pruned and 
plowed black 



T Fi S- 359 - , 
Unpruned black¬ 
berry bushes. 



BLACKBERRIES— Culture of.— Black¬ 
berries always command a good price and 
a ready market. They are often grown at 
little expense, on rough ground, useless for 
many other crops, and may be pruned with 
hedge shears and bush scythe, in case other 
implements are not at hand. Within the 
past few years the blackberry has demanded 
berry bushes, more attention than formerly, and the fruit 
improved greatly. 

BLACKBERRIES— Straightening up. —The Kittatinny blackberry, 
which we believe to be the most hardy, and which in winter need not be 
laid down, requires, however, care to keep it within bounds and proper 
shape. If this is neglected it grows in the form shown 
by fig. 360, and usually more spreading than the 
figure. It requires, as every good cultivator knows 
pinching in during its growth in summer, to keep 
it snug and compact and to induce abundant bear¬ 
ing. But even after full pinching, the stems often 
lean over as shown in the figure, and should be well 
straightened up in spring. Those which have not been pinched, should be 
cut back so as to appear like fig. 361, which shows the size and form of the 
bush after summer pinching. It may then be 
readily and firmly straightened up by taking out 
one spit of earth from the upper side, as repre¬ 
sented, when a pressure of the foot on the oppo¬ 
site side will place it erect, as in fig. 362. The 
earlier in spring the better for this work, but it may be performed 
at any time before there is much new growth. Rows of black- FigTJST 
berries, instead of spreading six to eight feet on either side, catching the 
clothes of every one who passes, and becoming a nuisance in the opinion 
of all who never saw them properly kept, ought to be brought into as com¬ 
pact and unobtrusive a form as a currant bush. 

BLIGHT IN FRUIT TREES—To cure.— A smothering straw fire 
should be made early in October, in calm weather, under each tree, and 
kept up during an hour or more. This done, scrape the moss and other 
impurities from the trunk, and from every obscure hole and corner; set 
your ladders to the branches, carefully cleaning them in the same way, 
taking from the remaining leaves every web or nidus of insects. If need 
be, wash the trunk and all the larger wood, with a solution of lime and 
dung. Last of all, it is necessary to destroy the insects and eggs which 



Fig. 361. 










brand’s cyclopedia. 


332 



Fig. 363. Bugle Cranberry. 


Fig. 364. Bell Cranberry. 



may be dropped upon the ground, and it may be useful to loosen the soil 
in the circumference. In the spring or early blighting season, apply your 
ladders, make a careful survey of every branch, and act accordingly; re_ 
peat this monthly, picking off all blights by hand, and using the water- 
engine where ablution may be necessary. To those who have fruit, or 
the market profit thereof, every orchard or garden, little or great, will re¬ 
pay such trouble and expense. 

CRANBERRY —Culture of.— The cranberry has become an impor¬ 
tant fruit in the markets of the country 
and is successfully cultivated between 38 
degrees and 45 degrees north latitude, but 


its cultivation will extend further south in the mountain ranges. The best 
location and soil consists of peat and muck bottoms, coated with pure 
sand obtained from adjacent banks, and the ground prepared in the manner 
to be capable of being flooded with clear running water at any desired 
time in winter, and at other times thoroughly drained. Drift soils have 
proved successful, but not as productive. Care should be taken against 
muddy water running over the plants, as it causes injury. 

In preparing the soil clean off all wood and rubbish, and remove the sur¬ 
face or “ turf” with a hoe made for that 
purpose. Then provide drains by clear¬ 
ing out the main water course and mak¬ 
ing parallel open ditches at regular dis¬ 
tances of about 2 rods. The whole sur¬ 
face should be then covered from 4 to 
5 inches with as pure sand as can be 
Fig. 365. Cherry Cranberry. obtained, which can be gotten from the 

adjacent banks and conveyed in dump-cars, run by hand on portable and 
movable wooden rail-tracks. An embankment or small dyke surrounds the 
whole and allows the plantation to be flooded at pleasure. 





NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 


333 


Setting the plants.— After sanding, the plants are set in rows about two 
feet apart. Some prefer a greater distance, to admit more freely the pas¬ 
sage of a horse cultivator. They should be ten or twelve inches apart in the 
row. 

Flowing should be continued from December to May, and furnishes, 
among other advantages, protection from insects as well as from early frosts. 

The plantation should be carefully kept clear of weeds for the first two 
or three years, after which, if well managed, the cranberry plants will cover 
the surface and render this labor comparatively light. 

Gathering the fruit is begun in September, and lasts several weeks 
Good pickers will gather three bushels a day. 

CHERRY TREES— Young. —A large portion of newly transplanted 
cherry trees die about midsummer, after having appeared in leaf, resulting 
from dry and hot soil at the roots. Water often increases the difficulty, and 
kills them by making a hard crust. If water is applied at all, the earth 
should be first removed from the roots, and a copious supply poured on. 
But this too is of little use. The roots are drenched for the moment, and 
in a short time are as dry as ever. The only remedy is a thick, heavy 
mulching. If of old straw, it should be about 6 inches thick, and several 
feet in diameter. 

DRAINING ORCHARDS.—It is best to place underdrains between the 
rows of trees—because, first, the large roots sometimes run down and injure 
or derange the channel; and secondly, because it is the space between the 
rows that is covered by the great mass of small fibrous roots, which furnish 
the nutriment to them. As dwarf pears do not send roots so far nor so 
deep, they may be set directly over the drain if desired. 

THE FIG.—The fig may be raised in open ground without protection in 
most of the States south of Virginia. In the Middle States it requires more 
or less protection in winter, for which purpose it is kept as a low bush by 
means of pruning the branches and roots. As far south as Virginia, the 
trees are covered with inverted boxes or large barrels, or protected with a 
mass of evergreen branches; and when this is insufficient, the boxes or bar¬ 
rels (open above and below) are filled among the branches with dry leaves, 
or small branches or leaves of evergreen trees. At the North, figs may be 
raised in sheltered situations, the trees to be laid down on the earth for win¬ 
ter protection, and covered with several inches of dry soil, or a dense mass 
of forest leaves or evergreen boughs. More commonly, however, they are 
kept in tubs or boxes. 

The trees may be propagated by seeds, layers, cuttings, and suckers. 
As the seeds do not uniformly produce the same sorts, they are to be em¬ 
ployed only for obtaining new varieties. In the South, spring cuttings of 


334 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


last year’s growth are taken off and set in February; and summer, or green 
cuttings, in August. If the latter do well they will bear the following year. 
At the North, the hard-wood cuttings are taken off late in autumn, and 
kept moist in a cellar till spring, and then set out. The green or summer 
cuttings, which should be only a few inches long, root best with bottom 
heat. 

The soil should be supplied with a medium amount of moisture. If too 
dry, the trees will drop their fruit; if too moist, the growth will be too rank 
and succulent, and the trees bear thin crops. 

The fig bears two principal crops, the first in spring, the second towards 
the end of summer. Novices are puzzled to see the spring figs make their 
appearance before either leaves or flowers are seen—the explanation of 
which is, that the fruit is only a fleshy receptacle, the inside of which con¬ 
tains the numerous minute flowers. 

FIRE-BLIGHT IN THE PEAR.—Gen. Negley informed the writer 
during a recent visit at his residence, that a near neighbor had very suc¬ 
cessfully treated his pear trees, which had been struck with the fire-blight. 
He had at first adopted the common practice of cutting off the affected 
limbs as far down as the disease appeared to extend, and not, as 
so frequently recommended, amputating two or three feet below, or 
beyond the reach of the descending poison. The neighbor here alluded 
to then changed his mode of operation, and as soon as he discovered the dis¬ 
ease in possession of any of his trees (which were some ten years old, and 
three inches in diameter,) he immediately cut them down to within a foot 
or two of the ground. The season being about midsummer, when the early 
summer growth had ceased, and when that severe check would not be given 
to them that would result if done when in rapid growth, they sent up new 
shoots the following spring, and every one thus treated has formed a fine 
healthy pyramid; while those managed in the old way nearly all perished. 

FRUIT TREES —Sprouts about. —These often become troublesome 
and unsightly. It is a common practice to cut them off at the surface of 
the ground. But this leaves many dead stumps, and the sprouts soon 
spring up again. The best time is to remove them early in summer, when 
they will be less likely to grow again ; and if they are not too large, they 
may be pulled off with the hands, assisted by one foot (in a thick boot,) 
placed between the sprout and tree. If they are too large, or too low down, 
to be taken off in this way, then the earth must be scraped away so that 
they may be cut off close to the tree. 

FRUIT TREES—To prevent from splitting. —For preventing forked 
trees from splitting under their weight of fruit, a correspondent has given 
the Prairie Farmer his plan. “ My plan,” he writes, “ which I have fol- 


NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 


335 


lowed for thirty years, is this : when I find a forked tree that is likely to 
split, I look for a small limb on each fork, and clean them of leaves and 
lateral branches for most of their length. I then carefully bring them to¬ 
gether and wind them round each other, from one main branch to the other. 
In twelve months they have united, and in two years the ends can be cut 
off. The brace will grow as fast as any other part of the tree, and is a per¬ 
fect security from splitting. I have them now of all sizes, and I scarcely 
ever knew one to fail to grow. 

FRUIT TREES— Mulching. —A correspondent of the Horticulturist 
planted 150 trees in an orchard in very good but rather dry soil. All were 
planted with equal care, but a third of them were mulched , or the surface 
of the ground when planted covered with six inches of litter. Those thus 
treated all lived; but fifteen of those not mulched died in the hot dry 
weather of midsummer. It is not stated that the soil was kept clean and 
mellow around them, which will often save the life of trees, when they would 
die of neglect. 

FRUIT LADDER.—An improvement in the common tall step-ladder is 
made by attaching a basket support to the right hand 
board. This support is made of an iron rod, about half 
« an inch in diameter, and bent when red hot in the shape 
(1 shown at a. This is inserted in the two holes shown in 
U the ladder (fig. 366,) so that the two ends pass closely 
Fig. 366.—Fruit Lad ^ ste p^ w hi c h holds them firmly. On this the 

basket is set, and both hands are then at liberty to work, which is a great 
advantage when the limbs must be held for picking. Smaller rods may be 
used if pieces are welded across at one or both places shown by the dotted 
lines. 

GOOSEBERRIES.—The best English gooseberries, for this country, are 
Crown Bob, fig. 367, and Whitesmith, fig. 368. The accompanying figures 
represent the natural size and 
form of these gooseberries 
when fully grown, on well prun¬ 
ed bushes, standing in good 
cultivated soil. As commonly 
cultivated, they are about half 

Fig. 367. Crown Bob. ^is g * ze . a ser i ous objec- 

. c •, Fig. 368. Whitesmith, 

tion is their liability to mildew after bearing one or 6 J 

two crops; an evil that may for a time be averted by good cultivation and 
pruning, and mulching in summer. The most valuable gooseberry, however, 
for common culture, all things considered, is Houghton’s. It grows freely, is 
easily propagated, and in most localities never mildews. It is a profuse bearer. 







336 brand’s cyclopedia. 

The cut, fig. 369, shows a portion of a branch, with berries of tne average 
size under common culture. Branches loaded as densely, a foot or two long,, 
are generally found on every bush. Under pruning and high cultivation 
with some thinning of the berries, they grow larger. The Mountain Seed¬ 
ling is similar, larger, but with thicker skin. There are two or three sub- 
varieties, among which is the American Seedling, very nearly resembling the 
Houghton. A spurious sort has been widely disseminated under the latter 
name. 

The Houghton gooseberry is an excellent sort for bottling for winter use. 

The process is exceedingly simple and easy, no heat 
nor cooking being required. Pick the berries while 
yet quite green, and before the ripening process has 
even commenced. If done later they will not keep. 
Clip off the stem and calyx with sharp scissors, and 
pack them in glass jars, shaking them down well, 
and pressing them closely, but not so as to crack 
or injure them. Then cork them, rendering the 
bottles tight with grafting-wax or sealing-wax. 
Place the bottles in a box in a cold cellar, imbedded in dry saw-dust. They 
will be in fine order the following winter. 

GRAFTS —Plum— Which are sometimes injured by intense cold, are 
generally better if cut before the approach of the severest weather, and 
securely packed away. 

GRAFTS —Cutting. —The best time to cut grafts is at the commence¬ 
ment of winter. In cutting and packing them away there are various 
precautions that should be observed. In the first place let them be amply 
and distinctly labelled, as it is very annoying to find the name gone at the 
moment of using them. For this purpose they should be tied up in 
bunches not over two or three inches in diameter, with three bands around 
each bunch—at the ends and middle. The name may be written on a piece 
of pine board or shingle, half an inch wide, a tenth of inch thick, and nearly 
as long as the scions. This, if tied up with the bunch, will keep the name 
secure. For convenience in quickly determining the name, there should be 
another strip of shingle, sharp at one end, and with the name distinctly 
written on the other, thrust in the bundle, with the name projecting from it. 
If these bunches or bundles are now placed on ends in a box, with 
plenty of damp moss between them and over the top, they will keep in a 
cellar in good condition, and any sort may be selected and withdrawn with¬ 
out disturbing the rest, by reading the projecting label. We have never 
found sand, earth, saw-dust, or any other packing substance, so convenient, 
clean and easily removed and replaced, as moss , for packing grafts. It is 



Fig. 369. 

Houghton’s Seedling. 



NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 


33/ 


needful, however, to keep an occasional eye to them, to see that the proper 
degree of moisture is maintained—which should be just enough (and not' 
a particle more ,) to keep them from shriveling. They must, of course, be 
secure from mice . 

GRAFTING KNIVES.—A correspondent of an agricultural paper who 
has practiced pruning for thirty years, gives the following drawings of 
grafting knives. He says: 

There is a great gain in using a tool best adapted to its work, and I 
think those acquainted with fig. 371, will, after an explanation of its advan- 
tages, desire to procure it. Fig. 370 is taken. 
✓ from the April number of the American Agri- 

culturist. Fig. 371 is the knife used by most 
Western grafters. I have handled both. The 
wedge point a , should be made of steel, well 
tempered, and not of iron (as was the one I 


f 


Fig. 370. 


purchased, and which gave me much trouble by bending,) for the point, in 
pressing open the slit just before placing the graft, receives a considerable 
strain. 

Fig. 370 would be as good as fig. 371, if you could always be in a favora¬ 
ble position to handle it; but limbs are sometimes very difficult to get at. 
In such cases, fig. 371, from its form, is preferable, and a man can in a 
day accomplish more with it, and with greater y-v. ' 

ease, for in driving in the wedge point a , there 
is no projecting knife-blade in the way of your j/ 0 ^^ass****^ 
mallet (which should be a round piece of Fig. 371. 

hard wood,) to interfere with the direction of the blow, or worse still, in 

i some awkward positions there is a risk of 
hitting your hand against the blade. I men- 
^ tion this feelingly. Fig. 371 is frequently 
Fig. 372. made too thick in the blade, but when prop¬ 

erly made, is a very satisfactory tool to work with, much more so than the 
other, according to my experience. 

Another correspondent of the same paper says : I send you a rude draft 
of a good grafting-knife and chisel, (fig. 372.) Those who have used 
them, say that the advantage of this form is in having the instrument bal¬ 
ance when the wedge is in the stock, so that it does not fall out. The 
hook is for hanging on a limb. 

GRAPES— Overbearing —Do not allow grape-vines to overbear. Many 
a young vineyard has been injured, if not ruined, by carrying too much 
fruit. Novices often delight to show how many grape they have on 
their young vines, and to tell how many tons per acre their new vine- 

21 






338 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


yards have yielded. Thin out the bunches as soon as they have set^ 
and let the crop be small. It will be all the better in quality, and the vines 
will preserve their health and vigor. 

GRAPE TRELLIS.—In answer to several inquiries, we give the annexed 
cut (fig. 374,) representing the mode of constructing wire trellis for grapes. 

The posts are white cedar, mostly round and 
rough; they are set in the ground about two and 
a half feet, are seven feet high above ground, 
and twelve feet apart. At the ends, they are 
braced as represented on the left portion of the figure, the powerful stress 
of the wires requiring a firm support. The wire, which is No. io,is placed 
about 14 inches apart, the bottom one about two feet from the ground, and 
the upper about six and a half to seven feet high. At the ends the wires 
pass through or around the posts; they are attached to the intermediate 
ones by staples. The vines are trained on this trellis mostly in the fan 
form, and where necessary are fastened to the wire by cotton cord. 

The cost of this trellis is 75 cents to one dollar per rod. The cut repre¬ 
sents only one length between posts, besides the end bracing. 

GRAPES— Pyramidal training of.— C. A. Brackett, of Winchester, 
who has uniformly exhibited the finest specimens of the Diana grape, trains 
them each to a stake, and gives them the pyramidal form. The soil is first 
trenched two feet deep, and stakes eight feet high are set seven feet apart, 
a vine planted at each end and immediately cut down to two eyes. The first 
year two shoots are allowed to grow, and are carried up spirally, both in the 
same direction, about five inches apart, around the stake, till they reach the 
top. The laterals grow at random. They are pruned back in the fall to 
eighteen inches, and the laterals to one eye. The second year, two shoots 
are carried up as before, from the two upper eyes, the laterals requiring sum¬ 
mer pruning. In the fall, the vines are cut back to within eighteen inches of 
last year’s wood. This course is continued till the vine permanently covers 
the whole of the stake or post—whatever surmounts it is cut back. The 
fruit is borne on the side shoots, the pruning is done on the short-spur sys¬ 
tem, and a handsome pyramidal form is given to the whole. 

By this system the vine is kept at home, light and air have easy access, 
the buds break easily, the flow of sap is equal and natural, and when once 
established the vine requires comparatively little care. 

Little or no manure is used—a few feet of short-jointed wood being pre¬ 
ferred to a longer growth from a heavy use of animal matters—doubtless 
different soils require different treatment in this respect. The Diana thus 
treated, has proved “ a great grower and free-bearer—the bunches of good 
size, and the berries large, some of them measuring seven-eights of an inch 
in diameter” 



Fig. 374- 












NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 339 

The size of these supports must vary with their intened purposes and 
with the character of the variety. If for permanent bearing, or to con¬ 
tinue twenty years or more, they should be much larger than for a few years 
trial. The Delaware and Rebecca do not need support so large as the Isa¬ 
bella and Concord. The latter, to afford ample room, should be twelve 
feet high or more, and the side limbs should extend about three feet at bot¬ 
tom, and be shorter as they approach the top. If the part which enters 
the ground is well coated or soaked in gas tar, this part will last as long as 
desired. 

REGISTERING ORCHARDS.—Planters who have set out young 
orchards should not forget to register the names of all the sorts in a book. 
It may be done in a common account book, and will then be always at 
hand, and ready for reference. Commence with a row on one side and 
proceed regularly to the other; in this way every tree may be found. Plan¬ 
ters receive their trees labeled from the nursery, and carefully observe every 
kind; but in two or three years they forget them, the labels being lost or 
defaced, and when the trees bear the first specimens, are puzzled to know 
what they are. They call on some wiseacre, who gives half the names 
wrong, and misnomers are thus multiplied. Now is the time to register 
them. 

PEARS ON APPLE-STOCKS.—It is very rare that pears succeed well 
on apple-stocks. Sometimes they will give much promise for a year or two 
and then fail. The Winkfield and Summer Bonchretien, will often grow 
freely for a few years. We have raised about one peck of fine Seckles 
pears on a small tree on apple root, five years old, but the union being 
imperfect, it broke off at the surface of the ground. We cannot recom¬ 
mend the practice, except to those who are fond of unsuccessful experi¬ 
ments, often not one in a hundred succeeding after the first year or two. 

PEACH— Grafting the.— This, in the Northern States, requires great 
skill for its successful performance, but at the South where growth is so 
much more rapid, and other influences more favorable, it is comparatively 
easy. In a late letter from Robert Harwell, of Mobile, long known for his 
skill in fruit culture at that place, he gives the following results of his prac¬ 
tice : I propagate all my peaches by grafting, beginning in November or 
December, and if the stocks and grafts are good and the grafting well done, 
I do not lose over five in a hundred. I have my grafting done at the 
house, and plant the grafts like cabbage plants. I formerly budded, but 
found it very troublesome, and have entirely abandoned it.” 

PEARS—To color. —Josiah Hoopes.the well known West Chester, Pa., 
nurseryman, says that to give a high color to pears “ all that is necessary 
will be to spread a blanket on the floor of a cool room, and then thinly 


340 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


and evenly place the fruit on the floor. A second blanket must be spread 
over them, and in a short time the effect of this treatment will be apparent 
in the most golden colored Bartletts, and rich, ruddy-looking Seckles imagi¬ 
nable. Pears perfected in this manner rarely have the mealiness of their 
naturally ripened companions; nor do they prematurely decay at the core, 
as when left on the trees.” 

PEAR TREES— Protecting the trunk of.— Orchardists are familiar 
with the disease that affects the bark on the bare trunks of standard pear 
trees, particularly at the South and West, where there is so much hot sun 
at mid-day. The Northwestern Fawner states that a fruit-grower has for 
several years protected his trees against the hot sun by adjusting a board 
to shield them from the two o’clock rays, with entire success—adding that 
“ since he has tried it, he has lost no more trees, the bark on that side 
remaining as smooth and as soft as on any other part of the tree.” 

Distances for planting trees, etc. 


Apples, standard - 

FEET. 

25 to 33 

/ 

Plums, standard - - - 

FEET. 

Apples, dwarf - 

5 to 8 

Plums, dwarf - 

8 to 10 

Pears, standard - 

20 

Quinces .... 

6 to 8 

Pears, dwarf - 

8 to 10 

Grapes - 

10 to 12 

Peaches, headed back - 

12 

Gooseberries and Currants 

4 

Cherries, standard 

20 

Raspberries - 

4 

Cherries, dwarf 

8 to 10 

Blackberries - 

6 to 8 


For the above distances, the following is the number of trees required for 


an acre: 

At 4 feet apart each way - 

- 2,720 

At 15 feet apart each way - 

- 200 

At 5 feet apart each way - 

- L 742 

At 18 feet apart each way - 

135 

At 6 feet apart each way - 

- 1,200 

At 20 feet apart each way - 

no 

At 8 feet apart each way - 

- 680 

At 25 feet apart each way - 

70 

At 10 feet apart each way - 

430 

At 30 feet apart each way - 

50 

At 12 feet apart each way - 

325 

At 33 feet apart each way - 

40 


GRAPES —Rules for pruning. — Hovey’s Magazine gives substantially 
the following general rules for grape pruning, after recommending grape- 
growers to be free in the use of the knife, followed by the remark that where 
one vine is pruned too severely, nine are not pruned enough: 

i st. No shoots should be nearer than one foot from each other. 

2d. Prune back to within one eye of the old wood, every fall and spring, 
about one-half of the annual shoots—the remaining eyes producing canes 
to be retained for bearing next year—when the old bearing wood is in turn 
to be cut out, to make room for new shoots. 

3d. Disbud or rub off, as soon as they appear, all shoots not wanted as 
bearing wood. 

PEAR TREES.—In the different varieties of the pear there are many 


NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 


341 


different modes of growth, which should be well understood by those who 



would raise and train them success¬ 
fully, each variety requiring its pe¬ 
culiar management. A straight, 
upright growth, fig. 375, as the Buf- 
fum, and also the Bartlett, although 
in less degree, should prune them 
in such a manner as to give them a 
more spreading form. The upper 


375 - 376. 377. 


378 - 379 - 


shoots should be cut back more freely than in other trees; and, in making 
a cut, let it be done next above a bud which stands on the outside of the 
shoot. In removing supernumeraries cut out those which are most upright, 
leaving those which have a diverging tendency, so far as can be done to ad¬ 
vantage. It is proper to remark, however, that less care need be taken 
with the Bartlett and Buffum than with some other kinds which are less pro¬ 
ductive, as both of these are such heavy bearers, as to give the branches a 
diverging tendency after two or three years, the great point being to pre¬ 
vent the tops from running up too high. 

Those sorts whose shoots are diverging, as in fig. 376, as in the Seckle, 
Washington and Boussock, do not require the special care just described, 
but only enough to preserve a handsome, even head. 

Where the branches are spreading, as in fig. 377, as seen in the Law¬ 
rence, the pruning adopted in the first instance should be rather reversed, 
by cutting out such shoots as have a tendency to droop, and leaving those 
of a more straight and upright character. This care is especially required 
for the lower branches, where horses are used for cultivating the orchard. 

Varieties with ascending shoots, or those which curve upwards, as in fig. 
378, instances of which occur in the Tyson and Onondaga, require nearly 
the same care as in the case of 376. They mostly form handsome heads 
with very little care, except the removal of one-sided branches, and in pre¬ 
serving even distribution. 

Fig. 379 represents the straggling growth seen in the Winter Nelis, Black 
Worcester and Beurre Giffard. If these sorts are worked on the stocks as 
usual, near the surface of the ground, they require much staking to make 
even tolerably straight stems. Much better trees may be made by grafting 
or budding them at standard height into such straight varieties as the Buf¬ 
fum. In this way, with the addition of keeping the head in good shape, 
we have succeeded in making handsome trees of this sort. 

PEARS— Pruning dwarf.— It is well known to every intelligent fruit 
culturist, that there have been many failures with Dwarf Pears. With the bad 
manner in which they have been managed, it is surprising that there should 






342 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


not have been more. Other kinds of trees, as the apple, peach, and cherry, 
have been generally treated with utter neglect, and yet some of them have 
survived and given tolerable returns. Presuming on this success, most 
planters are determined to compel dwarf pears to submit to the same treat¬ 
ment. 

A dwarf pear tree should never be planted at one year old. A good one- 
year-old tree consists of a single upright shoot or stem, from three and one- 
half to five feet high, and should be cut off at about two feet from the 
ground; and in order to give a smooth, handsome stem or trunk, let the 
buds be rubbed off to the height of one foot from the ground—leaving on 
the upper portion six to nine buds, more or less; with the tree standing in 
its original position in full vigor, and cut back as above stated, each one of 
these buds will throw out a good strong branch, which gives a full, round dis¬ 
taff form to the tree; and is the time and manner, and the only time, when 
that desirable shape can be given, on which the future form of symmetry 
and beauty so much depends; and to avoid what is termed a crotched or 
fork-topped tree, in which the two uppermost branches are about of equal 
vigor and height, let the second branch from the top be pinched off, when 
about nine inches or a foot long, which will check and weaken it, while the 
uppermost one becomes a strong central leader. Whereas, if the tree be 
transplanted at one year old, and cut back as above stated, the vital forces 
of the tree will be weakened half or three-fourths by transplanting, and as 
the result only two or three (more or less,) of the buds on the trunk, will 
grow so as to form branches, and they perhaps only at the top or all on one 
side, while the remaining buds remain dormant, never afterwards to be de¬ 
veloped, as the other branches form new channels, which will more readily 
carry the sap to the other and upper portions of the tree. 

For transplanting, therefore, let a tree be two years old from the bud, well 
cut back at one year old, and with six to nine main branches, which form the 
frame work or foundation, which is to give form 
and character to the future tree, with proper care 

f and management. 

The annexed cut (fig. 380) will illustrate a 
two-year old tree, as above described, its lower 
branches about one foot from the ground, its 
upper branches being the strongest and most 
upright, and those below less vigorous and more 
horizontal. 

I speak of this more particularly, for the rea- 
Fig. 380. son that all the cuts which I have noticed in works on Pomo¬ 
logy, and in agricultural papers, represent a two-year-old tree with branches 




NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 34$ 

much the longest and strongest at the bottom, and diminishing in vigor 
towards the top, except, perhaps, the centre top branch; while all experi¬ 
ence illustrates the principle that the sap flows most freely and readily to 
the upper branches, giving them vigor, strength and uprightness, to the 
diminution of the same characteristics in those below. 

The dotted lines indicate where the branches should be cut back at the 
time of planting. 

In cutting a tree, with branches formed as above described, let the leader 
be cut down within four to six inches of the place where the one-year-old 
tree was cut off, and just above a good bud on the side of the tree, over 
the previous year’s cut, thus keeping the leader in a perpendicular position 
over the original trunk or bottom of the tree. 

If the side branches are too horizontal, upper buds are left for their 
extension; if too upright, lower buds are left. Side direction may be 
given, if desirable, to fill wide spaces, in the same way. Cut the other 
branches at such a distance from the trunk, that the ends of all of them 
would form a pyramid, the base of which should not be over twelve to six¬ 
teen inches in diameter, and in smallish trees much less ; thus the lowest 
branches will be left the longest; the object of which is to check the 
natural flow of sap to the upper branches, and induce it to flow more forci¬ 
bly to the lower ones, increasing the vigor and force of the latter as much 
as possible, which must be done at that time, or never. 

Fig. 381 represents a two-year-old tree after it has been pruned at two 
years old, and made the third year’s growth, and showing where it should 
be cut back at that time. All subsequent pruning will become easy to 
any one who has attended to these directions thus far. 

A correspondent says: “ Experience has convinced me, that with good 
trees, of well chosen varieties, on any good corn land, which is never too 
wet; and with the culture a good farmer gives his other crops, and the im¬ 
portant—nay more, the indispensable requisite to success —thorough prun¬ 
ing, no one need fail of attaining a degree of success highly satisfactory 
and profitable.” 

QUINCE— Pruning the. —Of all trees that suffer from neglect, none is 
more so than the common orange quince. Generally, the trees receive no 
care at all, but grow up a thick mass of brush. In this condition, they bear 
sparingly a small, poor fruit. Such masses of growth may 
be thinned by cutting out all the crooked and close growing 
shoots, and by cultivating the soil, they will then yield more 
and better quinces. If, however, they are kept in the neat, 
low tree form (shown in fig. 382 with open thrifty heads, 
and old manure or a compost of manure and muck and 



Figl 382. 


344 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


some ashes applied and well worked into the cultivated surface, the fruit 
furnished will be much greater in quantity and incomparably finer. 

RASPBERRIES — Culture of. — The raspberry is a paying fruit to 


any one who will give it attention after fruiting; the old 
canes are to be cut out, the ground plowed and hoed, the 
stakes removed or sheltered, or stacked in the field, and late 
in the autumn the young plants in the hills are removed, 
and the canes left are bent down and slightly covered with 
earth for winter protection. They are mostly planted three 
or four canes in a hill, four or five feet apart each way; 



closer than this 
will not do. Cut 
back to a few 




Pig- 3 & 4 -—Raspberries bent down and held with 
a shovel of earth till covered with plow 
for winter protection. 


Pig- 3 8 3 -— Hfil inches high when 

of KaQnhprriPd 0 


o f Raspberries ° 

when first tied to first planted to 


stake in spring. prevent bearing, and secure a good growth the first year. 
They hardly, before the third year, produce a full crop, but they continue 
bearing for many years. 

The worst enemy of the raspberry, as well as the strawberry, is the white 
grub, which should be searched out and destroyed. 

GRAPE Root-grafting the.— This mode of propagation is becom¬ 
ing extensively adopted by nurserymen. The accompanying figure shows 
how it is done. The cleft is made in a short graft, and a small root an 


inch and a half long, is inserted (fig. 385.) 
The parts are bound well together with strips 
of waxed paper, leaving a small portion of 



Pig- 385- 


the lower end of the graft open, for the free emission of roots. They are 
then subjected to a bottom heat under glass, and soon make growth. They 
are transferred to pots once before being set out in the open ground, and 
they make good saleable plants by autumn. The grafting is done about 
midwinter or later. 

APPLE— Root-grafting of the.— The following method of root-graft¬ 
ing is given by a nurseryman who has had a large practice, and, if followed, 
any one can meet with success. The tools consist, 1st, of a sharp, thin- 
bladed knife, the best of which is made from the blade of an old scythe, 
ground down to the right shape on a grindstone. 2d, a bench or table 
placed in front of a light window, and on which the work is done. 3d, an 
apron, worn by the grafter, the two lower corners being hooked fast to two 
sharp nails on the near edge of the table, for holding the scions while cut¬ 
ting them. 4th, strips of waxed paper, about an inch wide, made by brush¬ 
ing over sheets of thin, tough paper, a melted, well-stirred mixture of four 




NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 


345 


parts of rosin, two of tallow, and one of beeswax, and then cut into strips 
when precisely at a proper degree of coldness to separate well by means of 
a knife cutting upon a smooth board. A sufficient number of these for im¬ 
mediate use, should be hung near enough to the stove which heats the 
room, to keep the wax upon them about the consistence of butter on a 
summer day, so as to fit and adhere to the grafted root, without melting 
and running. 

The first operation is to cut up the grafts from the shoots or scions. It 
is performed by holding the scions in the left hand, the thicker end point¬ 
ing toward the right hand, which 
==== *^ s " holds the knife. Such a shoot is 

Fig. 386. represented, of diminished size, 

by fig. 386, the points a , a, a , the places where it is cut into grafts, and the 
dotted lines show how the cuts are made. 

Fig. 387 shows a portion of the shoot the 
natural size; 1, the first cut nearly directly 
across—2, the second or sloping cut, and 3, 
the slit for the tongue—and the whole finished and separate in fig. 388. 

Three strokes of the knife are thus required to 

_ cut and prepare each graft, and a rapid and 

Fig. 388. skillful operator has done one hundred and 

twelve in the manner described, in five minutes. Each shoot is thus cut 
up while yet held in the left hand, and the grafts as fast as they are severed, 
drop into the cavity of the apron already described. The counting is 
done during the process of cutting, and at no other time. 

The second operation is setting these grafts into the roots. Each root 
is held in the left hand precisely as the scion has been—(fig. 389,) the 


Fig. 387 - 


Fig. 389. Fi g* 390 . 

three cuts are given it (shown by the dotted lines in fig. 390,) to prepare 
it for the graft (as shown in fig. 391.) The grafts having been placed 
directly under the oper- 
55®* ator’s fingers, and in the 

right position, each one Fig. 392. 

Fig- 39 1 - is successively taken and firmly fitted to the pre¬ 

pared root, as shown in fig. 392, and as soon as this is done, another cut 
of the knife three inches lower down the root, severs it, and the root-graft 
is finished, and drops off obliquely on the table. Another sloping cut on 
the same root, and a slit for the tongue, are quickly made, and another graft 
picked up and inserted, the root being held all the while in the left hand, 















346 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


until worked up. The great point is to perform much with little handling, 
A single root will sometimes make but one graft, but more commonly two 
or three, and sometimes more. Each portion of root should be about three 
inches long, and the graft about five inches. 

Root-grafting may be performed at any time during winter, and those 
who have much of it to do, often continue the process the winter through. 
The roots when taken up in autumn, should be well washed, the tops cut 
off, and the roots packed in boxes with alternate layers of damp moss. 
Thrifty one-year roots are better and more easily worked than two-year 
roots. Side roots, or branches, should never be used. The scions should 
be kept in the same way. This is better than packing them in sand, which 
imparts a grit to them and dulls the knife. Different modes are adopted for 
packing away the grafts. The best is to place them flat in boxes, in alter¬ 
nate layers with sand, like miniature cord-wood, keeping the outer or graft- 
ends very even, and carrying up each layer separately and one at a time, 
so that one may be taken out for setting out without interfering with the 
next succeeding pile. The sand should be slightly moist and not wet. The 
varieties should be distinctly marked on strips of board separating each 
kind, where there is more than one in a box, and in addition to this, a card 
should be nailed on the outside, naming the kinds, at the point of separa¬ 
tion between them. A record should also be made as they are deposited, 
of the sorts, their order, and the number of each. Boxes two feet long, a 
foot wide, and six inches deep, are a convenient size, and will hold from one 
to two thousand each. If furnished with bow handles, they are easily car¬ 
ried at once to the field for setting out. Boxes holding 20,000 or more, keep 
the grafts equally well, but require additional labor in unpacking when set. 

They should be set out in spring as soon as the soil is sufficiently dry, 
and there is no further danger of its freezing severely. Special pains 
should be taken to pack the earth well about them, as they are dibbled in. 
The tips of the grafts should project about half an inch above the surface. 
The proper depth of setting is controlled somewhat by circumstances; if 
deep, the soil may be too cool to start them well; if the soil should not be 
deep enough, the dry season of the summer may destroy them. The old 
practice of setting them upright in boxes, to start into leaf before planting, 
is now discarded. 

STRAWBERRY— Improved implement. —The greatest labor in tend¬ 
ing the strawberry, is in keeping the runners cut or broken off, as they have 
to be severed a number of times during the season. 

The implement shown (fig. 393) is designed to aid the strawberry cul- 
turist in this part of his work. It is made as 
follows: A handle (an old hoe or rake 
handle will answer,) with slit sawed in as 


Fi g- 393 - 




NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 347 

shown. B, circular steel cutting blade five inches in diameter, with sharp¬ 
ened edge, and one-quarter inch circular hole in centre. Arrange it within 
the end of the handle. 

Operation.— Select a dry time when the ground is hard, and the runners 
will soon wither when severed from the parent stock. Run the blade half 
round the hill, with a slight pressure; enough only to cut the runners—two 
strokes should always clear a hill from runners. A rapid workman can 
clear 18,000 hills per day, which is 10,000 more than could be done in the 
old way—pinching them off—and will be found far easier to the operator, 
for the simple reason that you sever with two strokes all the runners on a 
hill; which by hand would require as many movements as there are runners, 
besides always being in a bent position. With this implement it is the reverse. 
A small bolt should be used for the axle, and by tightening it the blade 
becomes stationary, and can be used to remove the plants, and for various 
other garden operations. 

STRAWBERRIES— Transplanting. —The best time to transplant 

strawberries is early in the 

spring; if we at that time set 

out the plants with care they are 
sure to grow. Transplanted im¬ 
mediately after bearing, and 

while the plants are somewhat 

exhausted, they will do well, and 
a good crop will result the next 
season, but they will require 
more care and labor than by 
spring transplanting. Prepare 
the ground by first enriching, 
Fig* 394 * Strawberry Bunch. and ma king it clean and mellow, 

and manure well, the amount depending on conditions of the soil. The 
plants should be selected from the youngest well-rooted runners of the pre¬ 
vious year’s stock. They should not be pulled out but carefully lifted out 
with a spade, and the earth shaken off. Dip the roots in mud, thick enough 
to leave a coating on them at least one-third of an inch in thickness. Then 
transplant, spreading out the fibres as much as may be convenient, taking 
particular care not to cover the crown. Mulching is then to be applied 
about an inch, or an inch and a half, of fine, partly decayed stable manure. 
This will prevent the surface from drying and becoming hard and crusted. 
In extreme dry weather water will be necessary. 

RASPBERRIES AND BLACKBERRIES— Transplanting. —For the 
past two years, says the Horticulturist , we have annually planted out Rasp- 



348 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


berry and Blackberry plants in July. We prepare our ground, and then go 
to the rows from which to remove the plants, having a tub or pail with a 
little muddy water in it, dig our plants, they being the half, grown ones of 
this year, pinch off the ends about two inches, set the roots into our pail of 
muddy water, and from that to their permanent position. We do not often 
lose a plant, and the next season we get a fair crop of fruit. 

TRANSPLANTING— Directions for. —i. Have a good, deep, dry 
soil—well underdrained, if wet. Bad fruit is often caused by hidden water 
standing below the surface. 

2. If not very fertile it must be enriched by manure, which is best done 
a year or two before planting, as fresh, unmixed manure should never touch 
the newly set roots. Or strips of land eight feet wide for each row may be 
deeply plowed with the dead furrow in the middle (to promote drainage,) 
half a load or less of old manure or compost, placed for each tree, and 
thoroughly harrowed into the soil before setting. 

3. If the ground has been well and deeply mellowed and enriched, the 
holes need be only large enough to receive the roots without bending; oth¬ 
erwise they should be five or six feet across, and a foot deep. On heavy 
land inverted sods are good in the bottom. Large holes, filled with rich 
earth or old compost will cause young trees to grow rapidly. Never place 
manure near the roots. 

4. Pare off with a knife all bruised parts of the roots, to prevent decay. 
Place the tree no deeper than it stood before—less deep is better than more. 
Fill the fine earth carefully among the roots, spreading them all out with the 
fingers. No cavities should ever be left among or beneath the roots, and 
the earth maybe well settled among them by pouring in water when the hole 
is part filled. All except small trees need staking to protect from the wind. 

5. Autumn and spring are both good seasons for transplanting—except 
that tender trees, as peach and apricot, do best in spring, unless on a dry 
bottom. The autumn is the best season to procure trees from distant nur¬ 
series, even for spring planting. They may be safely wintered by burying 
the roots deeply in the earth in a dry, sheltered situation. Trees should be 
always shortened or cut in at the head when set out. 

6. Good, clean cultivation is of the ut?nost importance. Neither corn, 
potatoes, nor fruit trees, can flourish surrounded by weeds and grass sod. 

7. Water usually injures young trees by baking the earth. If necessary, 
lay the roots bare, pour on the water, and replace the earth. A rich soil, 
kept mellow , will not need water. Young cherry trees often die about mid¬ 
summer, unless mulched , or with the earth about them covered several inches 
with old straw, or other litter. Trees dried by long carriage may be restored 
by immersion for a day or two in water. 


NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 


349 - 


TREES— Luck with. —We have noticed that certain men always have 
much finer peaches, and pears, and plums, than most of their neighbors,, 
and are called lucky. Their luck consisted, in the first place, in doing 
everything well—taking what their neighbors called foolish pains—leaving; 
nothing unfinished; in the second place, in taking good care of what they 
had ; that is, giving their trees wide, deep, and mellow cultivation, apply¬ 
ing manure where necessary, and especially the liquid manure from the 
chamber and wash tub. Great pains taken, whether with fruit trees or 
with children, scarcely ever fail to produce good results. 

TREES— Tin labels for. —After many years’ trial, we find nothing so 
cheap, simple, convenient and durable as strips of sheet tin for permanent 
labels on bearing fruit trees. They may be seven or eight inches long, an 
inch or so wide at the largest end, and tapering nearly to a point at the 
other. Neither the breadth nor the length requires accuracy. They are 
cut out of scrap tin, and may be made at the rate of a dollar per one 
thousand, or at a less cost. To write the name, lay the label on a table or 
board, and make the letters with the point of an awl or of a file ground to 
a sharp point, pressing firmly while writing. Each label is placed on the 
side limb of the tree, by bending the smaller end once or once and a half 
around it. The work is then done—in less time than the reader has occu¬ 
pied in reading these directions. Nothing further is necessary for many 
years. The point used for writing the letters scrapes away the tin coating, 
and admits the moisture of rain to the iron, rusting it and rendering the 
letters conspicious. As the limb increases in size, the tin yields to the 
pressure, and never cuts the bark, and is at the same time stiff enough to 

hold on and prevent the label being moved 
by the wind, which so often defaces and 
Fig. 395. Label for Trees. wears out other labels. Out of some hun¬ 
dreds made and put on trees about eight years ago, all are now distinctly 
legible and in their places, and most of them appear likely to last at least 
eight or ten years more. The cut (fig. 395) is an accurate representation 
of one of these old labels. 

TREES— Old, renovating. —Trees will, like everything else, get old,, 
and we know of no better way to impart vigor to them than by manuring. 

The following manner of doing it we think far superior than 
the old practice of digging a circular trench around them 
and filling with manure. Dig narrow, radiating trenches, 
from within a few feet of the trunk, directly from it—this, 
will prevent cutting many of the roots. The annexed 
diagram (fig. 396,) will show the position of these 
trenches. These may then be filled with a compost , made 



Fig. 396. 



350 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


of turf, stable manure, ashes, and perhaps a little bone manure—the turf 
to be the chief constituent, say one-half or two-thirds—and the ashes says 
one-thirtieth. The bone manure is not essential, as its constituent part 
are in common manure in small quantities. If this is done in autumn, the 
roots will be prepared to penetrate it early in spring, and if the tree is not 
past recovery, it may make a new push. The roots probably extend as far 
each way as the height of the tree, and the trenches should extend about 
as far. They need not be cut very near the tree, as the roots are all large 
there, and would be more likely to be injured, and would be little benefitted. 
The trenches should be only the width of a spade, and may be two to four 
feet apart. 

TREES— Straightening up. —If newly set trees of moderate size have 
been well dug up, with plenty of roots, and the roots well spread on every 
side, they will maintain a stiff, upright position, and need no additional 
staking or stiffening. But they have not always received such careful 
attention ; and in this case they may need straightening up. Nothing can 
be much worse for a tree than the bending about in the earth by strong 
winds. They will sometimes stand well till the leaves come out, after which 
the winds have more purchase on them, and staking may be required. 

MULCHING— Winter.— At the commencing of winter, those who 
have young trees liable to be injured by cold, and which need high culture, 
will find an especial advantage in applying a winter mulching of short 
manure. This treatment is eminently useful for dwarf pears. Protecting 
well the part below ground, is of use to the exposed portions above—in 
the same way that a man’s feet and ears have been found to keep warmer 
on a cold day, when his body is well clothed. 

The best time in the year to manure trees is late in autumn. If applied 
earlier, it prevents proper cultivation ; and if in spring, its protecting influ¬ 
ence is lost, and the liquid portions do not become so well diffused through 
the soil by the time that growth commences. The manure should be 
short (not necessarily old or rotted,) to prevent attracting mice ; or if short 
manure cannot be had, a small cone of fresh earth should be raised around 
each tree, eight or ten inches high, which will effectually exclude the mice. 
In the spring, the manure is spaded in, if in a garden, or worked under by 
means of a gang-plow, if in an orchard kept clean by horse power. 

WINTER PROTECTION.—It is best not to cover raspberries, grape¬ 
vines, etc., till winter is close at hand, as they will ripen and harden better if 
exposed till that period. Grapevines are often sufficiently protected, if 
simply lying flat on the ground—or at most, with an inch or two of the 
soil. The same remark will apply to the raspberry and blackberry. Cau¬ 
tion is needed in the use of the straw around fruit trees, as it may encour- 


NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 


351 



age depredations of mice. If covering the stems, it should not be closely- 
tied about them, as circulation of some air is the best. Evergreen boughs 
placed about any tender trees, afford the best and safest protection. The 
thicker the coat they form, the more complete the covering will be. 

IMPLEMENTS OF HORTICULTURE.— Floral rake (fig. 397.)— 
This convenient lit¬ 
tle tool consists of^ 

a small six-tooth Fig. 398.— Garden Fork. 
Fi g- 397.— Floral Rake. rake on one side and a hoe blade on the other. 
The handle is about fifteen inches in length, and it may be used with one 
hand while sitting on a stool at the flower bed. It is a very convenient 
tool for the use of ladies. 

Garden fork (fig. 398.)—This is made of steel, and is used for loosen¬ 
ing the earth in flower beds, and about the roots of plants. When the soil 
is sufficiently moist or adhesive, it answers a good purpose for transplant¬ 
ing annuals and small plants. 

Transplanting trowels (figs. 399 and 400.)—These are made of 
various forms and sizes, for trans¬ 
planting, weeding, loosening soil 
on a small scale, etc. The con- Fig. 4oi.-Vine Scissors, 
cave ones are most commonly used for transplanting, 
cutting out blocks of soil in a circular form, but the flat 
ones are best for working the soil. 

Vine scissors (fig. 401.)—A neat and convenient instrument for thin¬ 
ning out the berries from bunches of grapes which have grown too thick, 
for removing unnecessary shoots, leaves, etc., and for gathering the fruit. 

Flower gatherer (fig. 402.)—This combines scissors with small 

pincers, and are not only useful in clipping 
the stalks of herbaceous flowers, but more 
especially so for roses and other plants fur¬ 
nished with spines and prickles. The scis¬ 
sors cut the stalk, and the pincers hold it until secured. 

Shears for edging (fig. 403.)—These are particularly applicable 
to trimming the sides of box and 
other edging to walks and flower¬ 
beds—the operator standing up¬ 
right while using them, and rest¬ 
ing the shears on the wheel, while 
he thrusts them onward in shearing. 

Grafting chisel (fig. 404.)—This is one of the best forms of the graft¬ 
ing chisel, combining the knife and wedge. The wide cutting part is used 



Figs. 399 and 400. 
Transplanting trowels 



Fig. 402.—Rower Gatherer. 




Fig. 403. Shears for 
Edging. 


Fig. 404. Grafting 
Chisel. 




352 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



Figs. 405. 406. 


for making the cleft in the stock—the pointed ends for opening the cleft to 
receive the scions. 

Pruning and budding knives. —Fig. 
405 is a very convenient knife for light 
pruning, sloping grafts, etc. Fig. 406 is 
the best form of the budding knife; the 
sharp edge of the blade being convex, 
allows the operator to make the upright 
slit in the bark, in places where it would 
be hard to reach it with a common pointed 
knife, and without scraping or injuring the 
young wood. Figs. 407 and 408 are strong 
knives for pruning, the former for ordinary 
work, and the latter for removing small 
limbs, stubbing down stocks, etc. 

Tree scraper (fig. 409.)—This is used for removing the rough and 
shaggy bark, moss, etc., from old fruit trees. It consists of a triangular 
fc x plate of steel, attached to a handle at the centre. 

The sides of the triangle are about four inches, 
Fig. 409. Tree Scraper. and the handle may be from one to several feet 
in length. 

Garden syringe (fig. 410.)—This is made of various sizes, of different 
materials, and with different caps or ori- - 

fices. The cheapest is made of thick / I ^ 

sheet tin, and the best and most durable Sr ** 
of brass. For throwing a single stream, Fl S- 4ia Garden Syringe, 
the jet represented in the figure is attached; for washing dusty foliage with a 
soft shower, a rose with many fine holes is screwed on. The syringe is used 
for washing, watering, destroying insects, etc. 

Garden engine (fig. 411.)—This may be used for all the purposes of a 
syringe, in washing and 
\ watering plants, and also 
for washing windows, 
carriages, and protect- Fl S- 4*2. 




ing buildings against fire. It will hold about a barrel 
of water, and is easily moved by its handles on the 
cast iron wheels. It will throw water 40 feet high. 
Fig. 411. Garden Engine. Wheel barrows are of two kinds; fig. 412, is 
the simpler or canal barrow, used for wheeling earth, stones, and manure, 
and is emptied by tipping it on its side; and fig. 413, is the larger or box bar- 











NURSERY, ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN, 


353 - 



Fig. 413 - 


row, the side boards of 
which may be removed 
for unloading, or for re¬ 
ceiving larger articles than 
would enter the box. 

Garden reel. — Fig. 





Fig. 416. 


Fig. 414- 

414 represents the reel for the garden line, and stake for stretching the 
same, all made of iron. The stakes should be at least a foot long. The 
line should be a strong, well twisted hemp cord, about one-fifth of an inch 
in diameter, which, when not in use, is quickly wound up on the reel. 

Seed sower (fig. 415.)—This is designed for sowing the seeds of various 

garden crops, opening the 
soil, dropping the seed, 
covering and rolling, all at 
one operation. It lessens 
the labor of planting the 
early crops of vegetables. 

Garden seat.— Fig. 416 represents 
Fig. 415. Seed Sower. the end view of a garden seat so con¬ 

structed that it may be instantly reversed when not in use, and protected 
from rain, dew, leaves, bird-slime, etc., and whenever needed is always 
clean and dry. The shaded part is the board legs or support, on which 
rests another board (represented as lying flat, in the cut,) forming about 
one-half of the bottom of the seat. The rest of the bottom, and the back, 
If, is shown as turned up or inverted, forming a roof to the flat part; but 
when wanted for use, it is turned back by means of a hinge at a, and be¬ 
comes a perfect seat with a back. 

Rake for seed drills. —J. Harris, of the Genesee Farmer, uses a con¬ 
venient rake for forming rapidly and with perfect straight¬ 
ness, the drills for onions and other small garden seeds. 
The head of the rake is about seven feet long, and the 
^! teeth about one foot apart (fig. 417.) A length of four or 
Fig 417. Rake for ^ ve ^ eet wou ^ be less cumbersome, but operate more 
Seed Drills. slowly. The first set of drills are made perfectly straight 
by running to a stretched line ; and by running the first tooth in the last 
mark afterwards, the whole are kept equally. . 


Fig. 418. 


so. To drop the seed expeditiously into these 
drills, we have found the following mode an 
excellent one: Provide a small tin cup like an inverted tin canister, with the 
bottom removed, as shown in fig. 418. Several cups should be provided, 
fitting tightly on the lower end or funnel, with perforations of different sizes 

22 


















354 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


to suit different kinds of seeds; nail this cup to the lower end of a stick, 
about as long as a common walking cane, place the seed within the cup, 
and pass along the drills, shaking it over them. It will prevent stooping, 
and enables the operator to walk fast. 


Cooking and baking. 


APPLE FRITTERS.—Pare and core some fine large pippins, and cut 
them into round slices. Soak them in sugar, moistened with water, and 
nutmeg for two or three hours. Make a batter of four eggs, a tablespoonful 
of rose-water, and one of milk; thicken with enough flour, stirred in by- 
degrees, to make a batter; mix it two or three hours before it is wanted, 
that it may be light. Heat some butter in a frying-pan; dip each slice of 
apple separately in the batter, and fry them brown; sift powdered sugar 
and grate nutmeg over them. 

ARTICHOKES.—Soak them in cold water, and wash them well; put 
them into plenty of boiling water, with a handful of salt, and let them boil 
gently for one and a half or two hours ; trim them and drain on a sieve; 
send up melted butter with them, with some put into small cups, one for 
each guest. 

ARTICHOKES— Boiled. —Twist off the stalks and wash them in cold 
water. When the water boils put them in with the tops down. They will 
be done in one and a half hours. Serve with melted butter. 

BACON AND CABBAGE.—Boil some fine streaked parts of bacon 
with a little stock, and the ends of eight or ten sausages ; boil in the same 
stock some white cabbages for two hours, adding salt and spice, and serve 
very hot; place your sausages and cabbage around your dish, and the 
bacon in the middle. 

BEEF—To roast. —The noble sirloin of about fifteen pounds (if much 
thicker the outside will be done too much before the inside is enough,) will 
require to be before the fire about three and one half or four hours. Take 
care to spit it evenly, that it may not be heavier on one side than the 
other; put a little clean dripping into the dripping-pan; (tie a sheet of 
paper over it to preserve the fat;) baste it well as soon as it is put down, 
and every quarter of an hour all the time it is roasting, till the last half 
hour; then take off the paper and make some gravy for it; stir the fire 
and make it clear; to brown and froth it, sprinkle a little salt over it, baste 
it with butter, and dredge it with flour; let it go a few minutes longer, till 
the froth rises; take it up, put it on the dish, etc. 

BEEF—To bake rump of. —Cut out the bone and break it, and beat 
the flesh with a rolling pin ; season with pepper, salt, and cloves, and lard 
the meat across. Put the meat into an earthen pan, with the broken bones, 

355 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


356 

some butter, bay leaves, whole butter, one or two shalots, and sweet herbs; 
cover it close, and place it in the oven ; it will require six hours to bake. 
Skim off the fat, dish the meat, and serve with dried sippets and its 
own liquor. 

BEEF—To roast. —The primest parts are roasted, except the round 
which should be boiled; the ribs make the finest roasting-joint. 

Where a small quantity is required, it is better for the bones to be cut 
out, and the meat rolled ; this should be done by the butcher, who will not 
only cut cleaner, but skewer the parts into a fillet with more firmness and 
neatness than the cook, who is not expected to be as expert with the knife 
and skewer as the butcher. The tops of the ribs are frequently cut off into 
pieces of 3 or 4 pounds ; this piece, though occasionally roasted, should be 
salted; it then approaches in flavor to the brisket. 

In roasting the ribs, or any piece of beef, the precautions mentioned 
respecting placing it too near the fire, must be observed; and where there 
is much fat, and it is desired to preserve it from being cooked before the 
lean, it may be covered with clean, white paper skewered over it; when it 
is nearly done, the paper should be removed, a little flour dredged over it, 
and a rich, frothy appearance will be obtained. The joint should be served 
with potatoes and other vegetables; the dish should be garnished around 
the edge with horse-radish scraped into thin curls. This recipe will suffice 
for all the other roasting parts of beef. 

BEEF— Roast stew. —Cut cold roast beef into small bits, pour over the 
gravy left from dinner. Chop an onion, or better still, a small piece of 
garlic, add to the meat with pepper, salt, and a little Worcestershire sauce. 
If not enough gravy, add a little hot water, put in a bit of butter, and thicken 
with flour. 

BEEF— Stew. —Take 2 or 3 pounds of the rump of beef, cut away all 
the fat and skin, and cut it into pieces two or three inches square, put it 
into a stew pan, and pour over it a quart of broth; then let it boil, and 
sprinkle in a little salt and pepper to taste; when it has boiled very gently, 
or simmered two hours, shred finely a large lemon, adding it to the gravy, 
and in twenty minutes pour in a flavoring composed of two tablespoonfuls 
of Harvey’s sauce, the juice of the lemon (the rind of which has been 
sliced into the gravy,) a spoonful of flour, and a little catsup ; add at pleas¬ 
ure, two glasses of Madeira, or one of sherry or port, a quarter of an hour 
after the flavoring, and serve. 

BEEF— Steaks broiled. —Be particular that the fire is clear; it is of no 
use to attempt to broil a steak over a dull, smoky, or flaring fire ; see that 
the gridiron is clean and the bars rubbed with suet preparatory to laying on 
the steaks; when the meet is browned, turn it; do not be afraid of doing 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


357 


this often, as this is the best plan to preserve the gravy. When they are 
done, rub them over with a piece of fresh butter, pepper and salt them, 
sprinkle the shalot, or onion, cut very small, and send them to table with 
oyster sauce, a dish of nicely cooked greens, and well-boiled potatoes. 
They are frequently and pleasantly garnished with scraped horse-radish. 

BEEF TEA.—Beef tea is best made by cutting up tender, juicy beef in 
bits about one inch square, and put it in a strong bottle, cork it tightly, and 
set it in a kettle of cold water. Boil it about two hours. The fluid thus 
obtained will be the pure nutriment of the meat, and its tonic effects are 
powerful. Physicians have considered it better than alcoholic stimulants 
in cases of extreme exhaustion, where there is a feverish tendency in the 
patient. 

BEEFSTEAK—To cook. —Don’t fry your beefsteak, but if you like 
gravy with it, broil it, after pounding, in an empty, hot spider ; turn it over 
many times, and when sufficiently done, take it up on a platter. All the 
juice of the meat will be left in the spider. Add a little hot water, and 
thicken with flour and water smoothed together, for gravy. Steak is usually 
spoiled in one of three ways : i. By not pounding it enough. 2. By not 
turning it often while cooking. 3. By crowding too much jnto the spider at 
once, so that it cooks unevenly. 

BEANS—To cook. —The usual way people cook beans is to parboil 
them ; put them in a kettle or pan, set them in the oven to bake, with a 
piece of fat pork in them. The grease oozes out into the beans, causing a 
most unwholesome and indigestible mass, destroying all the good flavor of 
the beans. Now, the method for cooking them (which all who have tried 
it pronounce excellent) is as follows: Parboil as usual, putting in salt to 
suit the taste. Then put them in a pan and set in the oven to bake, putting 
in a piece of good, sweet butter—the size of a butternut will answer. Bake 
until tender and nicely browned over on top. Beans are very nutritious, 
and cooked in this way are palatable, digestible, and can be eaten by any 
one. If you want the pork, cook it in a dish by itself. 

BUTTER—To clarify. —Take butter, melt it in a warm bath, then let 
it settle, pour off the clear, and cool as quickly as possible. Butter pre¬ 
pared in this way will keep a long time good. 

CABBAGE—To stew. —Parboil in milk and water, and drain it; then 
shred it, put it into a stew-pan, with a small piece of butter, a small teacup¬ 
ful of cream and seasoning, and stew till tender. 

CABBAGE SALAD.—This is a wholesome dish, as raw cabbage is much 
sooner digested than when cooked ; a dressing of vinegar or sweet cream; 
shred it finely as for slaw. 

CABBAGE— Cold slaw. —Take fresh cabbage—white is preferable— 


358 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


wash, drain it, and cut off the stalks. Shave the head into very fine shreds 
with a cabbage cutter or sharp knife. Place it in a deep china or earthen 
dish, and prepare for it the following dressing : To one-half a pint of cider 
vinegar add one quarter of a pound of butter, cut in five or six bits and 
rolled in flour ; add a small saltspoon of salt. Stir well together, and boil 
in a saucepan. Have ready the yelks of four eggs well beaten. When 
the mixture comes to a boil, remove it from the fire, and stir in the eggs. 
Pour this boiling hot over the cabbage, stir it thoroughly through with a 
spoon, and set it in ice or snow, or some cool place, to get thoroughly cold 
before being served at the table. 

CAULIFLOWER— Cooking the. —Put a good sized cauliflower in just 
enough boiling water to cover it, with a large teaspoonful of coarse salt, 
and a piece of carbonate of soda the size of a moderate green pea, and 
boil for twenty-five minutes; then dish and drain out all the water, and put 
two ounces of butter on top of the cauliflower, and cover close. 

CHICKENS— Cullets of. —Remove the skin of two or three chickens. 
Bone all the joints except the wings, unless the fowl is very fleshy, and then 
remove them also, removing likewise breast-bones; flatten the flesh, and 
spread over them a seasoning of salt, cayenne, grated nutmeg, and mace, 
the salt being in the greatest proportion. Coat them with beaten egg 
and bread-crumbs, and fry them a nice brown. Have ready some good 
brown gravy, seasoned and flavored with lemon pickle. Lay the cutlets in 
the centre of the dish, and pour the gravy over them. 

CHICKENS—To fry. —Cut up the chickens and lay them in cold water 
to extract the blood. Wipe them dry, and season with pepper and salt, and 
dredge them with flour. Fry in lard to a rich brown; take them out and 
keep them near the fire; skim the gravy carefully in which the chickens 
have been fried, mix with it \ pint of cream; season with mace, pepper, 
salt and parsley. 

CHICKEN BROTH.—Cut a chicken into small pieces, and remove the 
skin and any fat that is visible; boil it for 20 minutes in about a quart of water, 
with a blade of mace, a slice of onion, and 10 corns of white pepper. Sim¬ 
mer slowly till the flavor is good. Beat a \ of an ounce of sweet almonds 
with a little water; add it to the broth, strain it, and when cold take off the 
fat. 

CHICKEN POT-PIE.—Clean, singe, and joint a pair of chickens. Pare 
and slice 8 white potatoes; wash the slices, and put with the pieces of 
chicken into a stew-pan lined with pie-crust; season with salt and pepper, 
dredge with flour, and cover with water. Cover with paste, making a hole 
in the centre; cover the kettle, and either hang it over the fire or set it in 
the oven. If in the oven, turn occasionally to brown evenly. 2 hours’ cook- 


COOKING AND BAKING. 359 

ing is sufficient. When done cut the upper crust into moderately small 
pieces and serve. 

CODFISH BALLS.—Pick up as fine as possible a teacup of nice white 
codfish. Freshen all night, or, if wanted for any other meal than breakfast, 
from the morning. Scald it once and drain off the water. Chop and work 
it until entirely fine. Put it in a basin with water, a bit of butter the size of 
an egg, and 2 eggs. Beat it thoroughly, and heat it until it thickens without 
boiling. It should, when all is mixed, be about 1 quart. Have some 
potatoes ready prepared and nicely mashed. Work the fish and potatoes 
thoroughly together as above, make it in flat cakes, and brown both sides. 

COFFEE—To make good. —In order to make good coffee, a practical 
cook says that the first thing necessary is to never allow an ounce of ground 
coffee to come into the house. If no one understands the art ofrosting 
coffee, then buy it ready roasted, and try and find a dealer who has not 
soaked all the essential juices from the coffee before putting it into his oven. 
If the roasted berry is about twice as large as when in its green state, de¬ 
pend upon it you have been defrauded. Get an earthen pot—you cannot 
make good coffee or tea in a tin vessel—and put the ground coffee in a 
clean white flannel bag, and be sure to put enough in, and drop the bag 
into the pot. Pour on boiling water and let it steep ; do not boil it. The 
coffee will steep in twenty minutes. Never break an egg into coffee, and 
never fill up with water the second time. Pour on in the beginning the 
amount of water needed. An ordinary teacupful of ground coffee is suffi¬ 
cient for three persons. Use Java, Mocha, or Java and Rio mixed. Follow 
this recipe, and you will never complain of poor coffee. 

CRANBERRY JELLY.—Put i quart of cranberries, which have been 
carefully picked over, to boil in 1 pint of cold water ; have ready in a bowl 
1 pint pure white sugar; when the cranberries are perfectly soft, mash them 
while hot through a colander into the bowl which contains the sugar, and 
stir until the sugar is dissolved ; then pour into moulds and set in a cool 
place for at least 24 hours. If the cranberries are good and no more 
water is used than the receipt calls for, this way of cooking them makes 
beautiful moulds for the table. 

CRANBERRY SAUCE.—To stew cranberries, a quart of berries, a 
pint of brown sugar, and a pint of water; place all in a porcelain kettle, 
cover closely, and allow them to cook eight minutes after coming to a boil 
without stirring; remove from the fire, and empty into an earthen dish to 
cool. 

CUCUMBER SALAD.—To ioo cucumbers add a quarter of a peck of 
small onions. Peel both and cut them into thin slices ; cover with salt and 
stand in the sun for six hours; rinse clean, and stand in clear, cold water 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


360 

for one hour. For the dressing take a box of the best mustard, put into it 
a little salt, pour in sufficient olive oil to stir it easily, and add vinegar and 
oil alternately till thin enough to pour smoothly. Put the cucumbers in jars, 
cover with the dressing, and cover closely. Seal the jars. 

DUMPLING— Baked apple. —Make a rich paste. Pare and core the 
apples, fill the cavities with sugar, and flavor with essence of lemon. Cover 
each apple with thinly-rolled paste, and bake in tin pan. Serve hot, with 
rich sauce. 

Apple.— Pare a few good-sized baking apples, and roll out some paste, 
divide it into as many pieces as you have apples, cut two rounds from 
each, and put an apple under each piece, and put the other over, join the 
edges, tie them in cloths, and boil them. 

English. — Make a very light dough, as for biscuit, with baking pow¬ 
der, in the proportion of a heaping tea-spoonful of the powder to a pint of 
flour, mixing with milk or water, and with salt added; have ready a large 
stew-pan with boiling water, make the dough into balls the size of a 
medium dumpling, throw them in, and boil them for twenty minutes with¬ 
out taking off the lid. To ascertain when they are done enough, stick a 
fork into one, and if it comes out clear it is done. Before serving, tear 
them apart on top with two forks, as they become heavy by their own steam. 
Serve with butter and sugar. 

DUMPLINGS.—Pare and scoop out the core of six large baking apples; 
put part of a clove and a little grated lemon peel inside of each and inclose 
them in bits of puff paste; boil them in nets for the purpose, or bits of 
linen, for an hour. Before serving cut off a small bit from the top of each 
and put in a tea-spoonful of sugar and a bit of fresh butter; replace the 
bit of paste and strew over them pounded loaf sugar. 

DUCKS—To roast.— Ducks should be well plucked without tearing 
the skin, all the plugs being removed. Some cooks go so far as to skin 
the duck, holding it a minute by the feet in scalding water, that the skin 
may peel easier; clean the insides thoroughly with a little warm water, and 
stuff with the same stuffing as for geese, using a little more bread for the 
sake of mildness; roast them before a brisk fire, but not too close, and 
baste frequently; they will take from half an hour to an hour, according to 
age and size ; when the breast plumps, they will be just done; serve them 
with rich brown gravy. 

EGG— Mulled. —Beat the yolk of a fresh egg in a tea or coffee cup, 
put in a little milk or cream and sugar, and then pour into it as much tea or 
coffee as will fill the cup, taking care to stir it well at the same time to pre¬ 
vent the egg from curdling. This makes a good breakfast for an invalid. 
It is light and nourishing without being heating. 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


361 

EGG OMELETTE.—Unless a great omelette is to be made, a small 
frying pan should be used, so as to insure thickness. 5 or 6 eggs will make 
a good sized omelette. Beat them well with a fork or egg beater; add a 
salt spoon of salt; put 2 ounces of butter in the frying pan; when melted 
pour in the omelette (beaten eggs,) stir with a spoon until it begins to set, 
then turn it up all around the edges, and when it is of a nice brown it is 
done. To take it out, turn a hot plate over the omelette, and turn the pan 
upside down. Double it over like a turn-over, and serve hot. If not suf¬ 
ficiently done on the top, brown with a salamander or a heated shovel. To 
have the omelette particularly fine, about as many whites as yolks should 
be used. 

EGG OMELETTE. — Beat separately the yolks and whites of four 
fresh eggs; to the yolks add as much powdered white sugar as will sweeten 
it, and a small dessert-spoonful of corn flour, very smoothly blended in a 
spoonful of cream or good milk. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, add the 
flour to the yolks, and gently stir in the whites, taking care to break the 
froth as little as possible ; pour the whole into a frying-pan from which the 
butter has been drained; two or three minutes over a clear fire is enough 
to cook the under side; hold the pan to the fire till the upper side looks 
firm ; spread raspberry or strawberry jam over one-half, turn the other side 
over it, and serve immediately. 

A dish resembling omelette can be made by breaking up eggs and frying 
them in hot lard. Salt and pepper, and when done, invert the spider, and 
turn out its contents on a plate. Send to the table hot. 

EGGS—To poach. —Put in a pinch of salt into some boiling water, also 
a tea-spoonful of vinegar. Break the eggs one at a time into a saucer, 
and slip into the water, which must be boiling, and enough in the spider to 
keep the eggs from touching bottom. 

EGGS—To poach. —The beauty of a poached egg, like a fried one, 
consits in having the white just sufficiently hardened to form a transparent 
veil for the yolk. Pour from a tea-kettle as much boiling water as you shall 
need, through a clean cloth into a stew-pan ; it should be half filled. Break 
the eggs separately into a cup or saucer, and when the water boils remove 
the pan from the heat, and gently slip the eggs in ; when the white is set 
replace the pan over the fire, (which should be moderate,) and as soon as 
the water boils the eggs are done ; remove them with a slice and trim off 
the ragged edges. If served on toast, cut the bread in pieces a little larger 
than the egg, and about \ of an inch thick: brown only on one side, and 
just enough to give yellow color; too much browning yields a bitter flavor. 
The toast may be moistened with a little hot water. Some sprinkle on it a 
few drops of vinegar or essence of anchovy sauce. 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


362 

EGGS— Scrambled. —Have a little lard heated in a spider, and break 
in eggs, one or two for each person; stir briskly, salt, and take up when 
they harden. A little chopped parsley and cold ham added to the eggs, 
make an agreeable dish. 

FISH—To choose. —All fish, of whatever species, may be known 
to be perfectly fresh by their being rigid and having bright eyes. 

FISH—To boil. —The proper sign that fish is done by boiling is that 
the flesh separates readily from the bone, and has lost all appearance of 
redness and transparency. It is important that this should be kept in view, 
as fish underdone is unwholesome. The opposite extreme, however, must 
also be carefully guarded against. 

FISH SAUCE.—Take \ a pint of milk and cream together, two eggs 
well beaten, salt, a little pepper, and part of the juice of a lemon. Put it 
over the fire and stir it constantly until it begins to thicken. 

FOWLS— Choice of. —If a cock, choose with short spurs, observing 
that they have not been pared or cut; if a hen, her comb and legs must 
be smooth; when old they are rough, and on the breast long hairs are 
found instead of feathers; smell them whether they are fresh, and feel 
whether the breast-bone is well-covered; if not, they have probably died 
from disease. 

FOWL—To broil. —Slit the fowl down the back, and score to the bone 
all the thicker parts, as the thighs and breast, in order to its being all 
equally done. Brush over the inside and the places scored with catsup 
and pepper, and broil over a clear fire. A sauce should be made of but¬ 
ter and flour melted brown, into which, when taken from the fire, should 
be put capers or button mushroons. 

FOWL AND CHICKENS—To roast. —Put them down to a good fire, 
and baste them well with butter. A fowl will require nearly an hour to 
roast, and a chicken about one-quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. For 
the fowl let a gravy be made of the neck and gizzard, and when strained 
put in a spoonful of browning. Serve the chicken with parsley and butter. 

FOWLS—How to cook old. —Prepare as for roasting; then boil three 
hours in a covered pot, with one quart of water, to which add two table¬ 
spoonfuls of vinegar ; after which put into a pan in a hot oven for about 
one hour to brown. The liquor in the pot is to be prepared for gravy; 
should the water boil away too much more must be added. The result is, 
the meat is as tender as young chicken, and some think richer and better. 

FOWL— Sauce for. —An excellent white sauce for fowls may be made 
of two ounces of butter, two small onions, one carrot, one-half a teacupful 
of flour, one pint of new milk, salt and pepper to taste. Cut up the onions 
and carrots very small, and put them into a stew-pan with the butter; sim- 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


363 


mer them until the butter is nearly dried up; then stir in the flour and add 
the milk. Boil the whole gently till it thickens, strain it, season with salt 
and Cayenne, and serve. 

FOWL— Stewed with onions. —Wash it clean, dry and truss it as for 
boiling; put a little pepper and salt into it, and rub it with butter; butter a 
saucepan; put the fowl in the pan with a pint of veal stock or water sea¬ 
soned with pepper and salt. Turn it while stewing, and when quite tender 
add twelve small onions, split, Stew all together for half an hour. A 
young fowl will take one hour, an old one three hours to stew. 

GEESE—To choose. —A young goose has a yellow bill; if red, it is a 
sign of age; if fresh, the feet will be pliable, but stale if stiff and dry. 

GOOSE— Roast. —Presuming that the bird is carefully plucked, singed, 
washed, and dried, put into it a seasoning of onions, sage, pepper, and 
salt, fastening tightly the neck and rump. Put it at first at a distance from 
the fire ; paper the breast-bone; baste well, and when the breast is rising 
take the paper off. Let good gravy be sent in the dish. Serve with pota¬ 
toes, gravy, and apple sauce. 

GOOSE— Boiled. —Having singed the goose, pour over it a quart of 
boiling milk; let it lie all night in the milk, after which take it out and dry 
it well; stuff it with sage and onions, cut small; sew up the openings, and 
hang it up for a day. Boil for one hour and serve with onion sauce. 

GREEN PEAS—To stew. —Put into the stew-pan a quart of peas, a 
lettuce, and an onion sliced, butter, pepper, salt, but no more water than 
remains about the lettuce after washing. Stew two hours very gently. 
When to be served, beat up an egg and stir it into them, or a little flour 
and water. 

HADDOCK—To fry. —Skin the fish, cover it with bread-crumb and 
egg, seasoned with salt and pepper, and fry with boiling lard or butter. 

HOTCH-POTCH.—(A favorite Scotch soup.) Boil a good-sized neck 
or breast of lamb for half an hour; take out of the soup pot six of the best 
chops, and lay them aside; then boil the rest to a good stock. Wash and 
cut into small pieces four freshly pulled young turnips, four young carrots, 
twelve young onions, a good-sized lettuce, and a small bunch of parsley; 
boil all these in the stock one hour. Twenty minutes before the soup is 
required, cut up a fresh cauliflower and put it in together with a quart of 
green peas, a pint of young beans, and a little pepper and salt; heat the 
chops that have been laid aside, and pour the soup over them in the tureen. 
A sprig of mint is an improvement. 

MUSHROOMS— Broiled. —Mushroom-flaps, pepper and salt to taste, 
butter, lemon-juice. Cleanse the mushrooms by wiping with a piece of 
flannel and a little salt; cut off a portion of the stalk, and peel the tops; 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


364 

broil them over a clear fire, turning them once, and arrange them on a very 
hot dish. Put a small piece of butter on each mushroom, season with pep¬ 
per and salt, and squeeze over them a few drops of lemon-juice. Place the 
dish before the fire, and when the butter is melted serve very hot and 
quickly. Moderate-sized flaps are better suited to this mode of cooking 
than buttons; the latter are better in stews. 

MUSHROOMS—To stew. —Trim and rub clean with a bit of flannel 
dipped in salt half a pint of large button mushrooms; put into a stew-pan 
two ounces of butter; shake it over the fire till thoroughly melted ; put in 
the mushrooms, a teaspoonful of salt, half as much pepper, and a blade of 
mace pounded: stew till the mushrooms are tender, then serve them on a 
very hot dish. 

MUSHROOM CATSUP.—Gather mushrooms in dry weather; take the 
large, fully-developed flaps, and see that they are free from insects and 
earth. Add to each peck of mushrooms J a pound of salt; break them up 
into a large earthenware pan, strew the salt over them, and let them stand 
for 3 days, stirring and mashing them up each day, then strain out all the 
juice. To every quart of juice put J an ounce of whole black pepper, J an 
ounce of bruised ginger, \ of an ounce of allspice, of an ounce of cay¬ 
enne, and the same quantity of pounded mace. Put all the spices with 
the juice into a large earthenware jar (standing in a pot of water,) and boil 
for 3 hours; or the catsup may be boiled in a preserving pan. Let the spi¬ 
ces remain in it when bottled. 

MUSTARD— Superior table. —Take of best flour of mustard 2 pounds ; 
fresh parsley, % ounce; chervil, £ ounce; celery, £ ounce; tarragon, £ 
ounce; garlic, 1 clove; and 12 salt anchovies (all well chopped;) grind 
well together; add of salt 1 ounce, and sufficient grape juice or sugar to 
sweeten, with sufficient water to form the mass into a thinnish paste by 
trituration in a mortar. When put into pots, a red-hot poker is to be thrust 
into each, and a little vinegar afterwards poured upon the surface. 

MUSTARD, French.— Salt, i£ pounds; scraped horse-radish, 1 pound; 
garlic, 2 cloves; boiling vinegar, 2 gallons; macerate in a covered vessel 
for 24 hours; strain, and add sufficient flour of mustard. 

MUTTON—To roast a saddle cf. —Take lean ham, truffles, green 
onions, parsley, thyme, and sweet herbs, all chopped small, with some spice, 
pepper and salt. Strew them over the mutton when the skin is taken off, 
put the skin over it neatly, and before roasting it tie over it white paper 
well buttered. When the meat is nearly done take off the paper, in order 
that the surface of the meat may be nicely browned. 

MUTTON— Stewed leg of. —Put it into the stew-pan with either broth 
or water, 2 or 3 carrots, a turnip, an onion, and a few black pepper-corns. 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


365 

After coming to a boil, simmer for 2f hours, take out the broth and veg¬ 
etables, dredge the meat with flour, and put it again on the fire to brown, 
leaving off the cover. Pulp the vegetables through a sieve, and boil them 
up with the gravy, adding a tablespoonful of vinegar. Pour. part of the 
sauce on the meat and send the rest to the table in a tureen. 

MUTTON BROTH.—2 pounds of a neck of mutton, a large handful of 
chervil; put these into 2 quarts of water and boil down to 1 quart. All of 
the fat should be removed. A pint may be taken 2 or 3 times a day. It 
affords excellent nutriment to the weak. 

ONIONS— Boiled. —Take the outside skin from white onions as uniform 
in size as possible, lay them in cold salt and water for 1 hour, and then boil 
them in milk and water until thoroughly tender; lay them in a deep dish 
and pour over them melted butter. 

ONIONS— Roasted. —These should be cooked in their skins; but before 
putting them into the oven brush off all grittiness. Place in a moderate 
oven, cooking gradually until nearly done; then quicken the oven and 
brown. Serve with plenty of fresh butter. 

OYSTER STEW.—Stew the oysters in their own liquor, and season to 
the taste with a little salt and pepper, butter may be added. Stews are 
often improved, in the opinion of many, by the addition of milk or cream, 
and condiments in the way of mace, parsley or nutmeg. If thickening of 
the soup is desired, grated cracker is preferable to flour. The best cooks 
omit flour entirely. A piece of butter rolled in grated cracker may be 
added. Pour the oysters, when done, over a dish floored with crackers, or 
covered with layers of crispy toasted bread. 

OYSTERS—To fry. —After they are taken from the shell, dry them on 
a clean cloth or napkin. Beat up the yolks of eggs with thick, sweet cream— 
one yolk to two tablespoons of cream. Rub together some grated bread 
crumbs or cracker, and a little salt and pepper. Have hot in a skillet three- 
quarters of a pound of melted butter. Dip each oyster in the beaten yolk 
and cream, and then roll it in the crumbs, coaxing them to adhere to it. 
Drop into the skillet, and fry until of a light brown color on both sides. 
They ought to be crisp and light. Never pour over them the melted grease 
that may remain. 

OYSTERS—To bake, roast or boil. —But a few minutes are required 
for this. Wash the shells clean. To roast, lay the shells on a gridiron, 
over a bed of live coals. When the shells open they are done. Lift off 
the top, and serve in the under shell. To bake them, put in a pan in hot 
oven; otherwise follow the same directions as for roasting. To boil, put 
them in a pot of boiling water. Serve in the shell. 

OYSTER SOUP.—To each dozen or dish of oysters put half a pint of 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


366 

water; milk one gill; butter half an ounce; powdered crackers to thicken. 
Bring the oysters and water to a boil, then add the other ingredients previ¬ 
ously mixed together, and boil from three to five minutes only. 

OYSTER PATTIES.—Take of oysters sufficient for the patties you may 
chance to want, strain the liquor and return it to them; mix them with very 
fine bread crumbs until they are of proper thickness; add a little scalded 
cream, and season the whole with pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper; warm 
the whole in a saucepan till it begins to simmer; when cold, put it in the 
paste, and bake it in the shape of small mince pies, three inches in diame¬ 
ter. The beards and homy part should be cut off, and the oysters cut in 
two or three pieces. 

OYSTER PIE.—Line a deep pie-plate with pie-crust; fill it with pieces 
of bread; cover with nice pastry and bake it in a quick oven till a little 
brown; have the oysters stewed and seasoned; just as the pastry is baked 
take off the upper crust, remove the bread, and put in the oysters; cover 
it and serve while hot. 

OYSTERS— Scolloped. —Select the best oysters, and wash them in a 
little hot water; rub half a loaf of stale bread through the colander. Put a 
layer of oysters in a shallow baking-dish, and season them well with pepper 
and salt. Sprinkle over them a thin layer of bread-crumbs; only enough 
to cover them. Strew bits of butter all over the bread, put in another layer 
of oysters, and finish as before. Two layers take better than three, and 
shallow dishes are the best to use. Boil up the water the oysters were 
washed in, with the liquor left from them; skim it clean, and just as you put 
the dishes into the oven, strain it into the side of them, so as not to wet the 
bread. The oysters need a good deal of pepper and salt, because the bread 
absorbs it, but they must not be either too highly or too little seasoned. 
Bake for half an hour in a brisk oven. 

PARTRIDGES—To roast. —Rightly to look well there should be a 
leash (three birds) in the dish; pluck, singe, draw and truss them; roast 
them for about twenty minutes; baste them with butter, and when the 
gravy begins to run from them you may safely assume that the partridges 
are done; place in a dish, together with bread crumbs, fried nicely brown 
and arranged in small heaps. Gravy should be served in a tureen apart. 

PARTRIDGES—To broil. —Cut them in half, dip them in butter pre¬ 
viously melted, and cover them thickly with crumbs of bread. A quarter 
of an hour ought to be sufficient to cook them over a clear fire. 

PARTRIDGE PIE.—Two braces of partridges are required to make a 
handsome pie. Truss them as for boiling; pound in a mortar the livers of 
the birds, a quarter of a pound of fat bacon, and some shred parsley; lay 
part of this forcemeat at the bottom of a raised crust; put in the partridges, 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


367 

add the remainder of the forcemeat and a few mushrooms; put some slices 
of bacon fat on the top, cover with a lid of crust, and bake it for 2\ hours. 
Before serving the pie remove the lid, take out the bacon, and add sufficient 
rich gravy and orange juice. Partridge pie may also be made in a dish in 
the ordinary way. 

PASTE— For fruit or meat pies. —This paste may be made with two- 
thirds of wheat flour, quarter of the flour of boiled potatoes, and some butter 
or dripping; the whole being brought to a consistence with warm water, and 
a small quantity of yeast added when lightness is desired. 

POTATO— English balls. —Boil some potatoes very dry; mash them 
as smoothly as possible; season well with salt and pepper; warm them, 
with an ounce of butter to every pound of potatoes, and a few spoonfuls 
of good cream; let them cool a little, roll them into balls; sprinkle over 
them some crushed vermicelli or macaroni, and fry them a light brown. 

POTATOES— Boiled. —It is a good way to pour off the water from 
boiled potatoes and dry them in the kettle a few minutes before dishing up. 
Set the kettle again over the fire and shake it back and forth to keep from 
burning. 

POTATOES— Fried. —Raw potatoes are excellent fried in very thin 
slices. They must be well salted, fried quickly and crisp to be good. 

POTATOES— Mashed. —When mashed potatoes are left from dinner, 
wet them up next morning into balls with a little milk; having salted and 
peppered them, fry them in a spider. 

POTATOES—How to have mealy. —A small piece of fresh lime, put 
into the pot in which watery potatoes are boiled, will, it is said, render 
them dry and mealy. 

SALAD— Russian. —Russian salad is made by cutting up raw apples 
and every kind of available vegetable into small slices and laying them in a 
shallow dish with salt, a little vinegar and pepper, and the best oil. The 
dressing must thoroughly saturate the mixture for at least twelve hours, and 
then the effect will be found very agreeable. 

SALAD.—The herbs and vegetables for a salad cannot be too freshly 
gathered. They should be carefully cleared from insects and washed with 
scrupulous nicety; they are better when not prepared until near the time of 
sending them to table, and should not be sauced until the instant before 
they are served. Tender lettuces, of which the outer leaves should be 
stripped away, mustard and cress, and young radishes, and occasionally 
small green onions (when the taste of the party is in favor of these last,) 
are the usual ingredients of summer salads. Half-grown cucumbers 
sliced thin and mixed with them are a favorite addition with many persons. 
In England it is customary to cut the lettuces extremely fine; the French, 


brand's cyclopedia. 


368 

who object to the flavor of the knife, which they fancy this mode imparts, 
break them small instead. Young celery alone, sliced and dressed with 
a rich salad mixture, is excellent; it is still in some families served thus 
always with roast fowls. Beet-root, baked or boiled, blanched endive, 
small salad-herbs, which are easily raised at any time of the year, celery 
and hardy lettuces, with any ready-dressed vegetable, will supply salads 
through the winter. In summer-salads the mixture must not be poured 
upon the lettuce or vegetables used in salad, but be left at the bottom, to 
be stirred up when wanted, thus preserving the crispness of the lettuce. 

In winter-salads, however, the reverse of this proceeding must be 
adopted, as thus: the salad of endive, celery, beet and other roots, being 
cut ready for dressing; then pour the mixture upon the ingredients and 
stir them well up, so that every portion may receive its benefit. In doing 
this it should likewise be recollected that the spoon and fork should always 
be of wood, and of sufficient size to stir up the vegetables in large 
quantities. 

SALAD-DRESSING.—For a salad of moderate size, pound very 
smoothly the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs with a small tea-spoonful of 
unmade mustard, half as much sugar in fine powder, and a salt-spoonful of 
salt. Mix gradually with these a small cup of cream, or the same quantity 
of very pure oil, and two table-spoonfuls of vinegar. More salt and acid 
may be added at pleasure; but the latter usually predominates too much 
in English salads. A few drops of cayenne vinegar will improve this recipe. 

Hard yolks of egg, two; unmade mustard, one small tea-spoonful; sugar, 
half as much ; salt, one salt-spoonful; cream or oil, small cup full; vinegar, 
two table-spoonfuls. To some tastes, a tea-spoonful of eschalot vinegar 
would be an acceptable addition to this sauce, which may be otherwise 
varied in numberless ways. Cucumber vinegar may be substituted for 
other; and small quantities of soy, cavaire, essence of anchovies or catsup 
may in turn be used to flavor the compound. The salad-bowl, too, may be 
rubbed with a cut clove or garlic, to give the whole composition a slight 
flavor of it. The eggs should be boiled for fifteen minutes, and allowed 
to become quite cold always before they are pounded, or the mixture will 
not be smooth ; if it should curdle, which it will sometimes do if not care¬ 
fully made, add to it the yolk of a very fresh unboiled egg. As we have 
before had occasion to remark, garlic, when very sparingly and judicously 
used, imparts a remarkably fine savor to a sauce or gravy, and neither a 
strong nor a coarse one, as it does when used in larger quantities. The 
veriest morsel (or, as the French call it, a mere soupoon,) of the root is 
sufficient to give this agreeable piquancy; but unless the proportion be 
extremely small, the effect will be quite different. The Italians dress their 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


3 6 ? 

salads upon a round of delicately toasted bread, which is rubbed with 
garlic, saturated with oil, and sprinkled with cayenne, before it is laid into 
the bowl; they also eat the bread thus prepared, but with less of oil and 
untoasted, often before their meals, as a digester. 

SAUCE— Caper, to imitate for boiled poultry. —Boil some parsley 
very slowly to let it become of a bad color, then cut it up, but do not chop 
it fine, put it into melted butter, with a tea-spoonful of salt, and a dessert¬ 
spoonful of vinegar; boil up, and then serve. 

SAUCE —German custard, for plum or other sweet boiled pud¬ 
dings. —Boil very gently together half a pint of new milk, or of milk and 
cream mixed, a very thin strip or two of fresh lemon rind, a bit of cinna¬ 
mon, half an inch of a vanilla bean, and an ounce and a half or two oun¬ 
ces of sugar, until the milk is strongly flavored, then strain, and pour it, by 
slow degrees, to the well-beaten yolks of three eggs, smoothly mixed with a 
knife-endful (about half a teaspoonful) of flour, a grain or two of salt, and 
a tablespoonful of cold milk; and stir these very quickly around as the milk 
is added. Put the sauce again into the stew-pan, and whisk or stir it rap¬ 
idly until it thickens and looks creamy. It must not be placed upon the 
fire, but should be held over it when this is done. 

SAUCE— For game or poultry. —Put into a stew-pan and set on a 
slow fire a quarter of a pint of white wine, a tablespoonful of vinegar, three 
tablespoonfuls of olive oil, a bunch of sweet herbs, and spice to taste. Add 
to the whole some good gravy, and serve hot. 

SAUCE— For pudding. —Two ounces of butter, a large tablespoonful 
of flour, corn-starch or arrow-root, two tablespoonfuls of milk. Put these 
in a stew-pan, stir well together; when the butter begins to melt, add six 
tablespoonfuls of hot water. Cover the stew-pan, let it boil up. When of 
the consistence of cream, pour it out and flavor to taste. Butter mixes 
best with milk, but in transparent saucers water alone can be used. 

SAUCE— Shirley.—12 good-sized, ripe tomatoes; 2 bell peppers (large 
ones;) 2 onions (many omit these, and like the sauce better—consult your 
own taste.) Scald and skin the tomatoes; chop the peppers and onions 
(if used) very fine. Then add 1 cup of vinegar, and £ of a cup of sugar, 
and boil 2 hours; then put in another cup of vinegar and boil 1 hour—or 
until the mixture does not separate. Then stir in 1 teaspoonful of cloves, 
1 dessert-spoonful of cinnamon, and a teaspoonful of pimento (allspice.) 

SAUCE— Worcestershire. —All the English sauces in popular use are 
founded upon walnut catsup—that is of English walnuts—or upon mush¬ 
room catsup. To make a catsup of walnuts, the green shells are taken in 
these proportions: 2 gallons walnut juice, 5 pounds salt, mixed and bruised, 
and allowed to lie a week; the liquor is then pressed out, and to every gal- 

23 


370 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


Ion is added 4 ounces of allspice, 3 ounces of ginger, and of pepper and 
cloves 2 ounces each, all bruised. The whole is then simmered for 30 min¬ 
utes, and is then set aside to clear. This is the catsup. To make a sauce 
of this similar to Worcestershire, take 1 gallon port wine, } gallon catsup, 

2 pounds anchovies, with their liquor, 8 lemons, 48 shallots or small onions, 
scraped horse-radish if pounds, mace 1 ounce, cayenne 2 ounces, mustard 
8 ounces. Boil the whole gently, and then strain and bottle. 

SAUCE.— Chutney. —Pare and core sour apples. Then take of these 
apples, tomatoes, brown sugar, and best raisins, each 8 ounces; salt, 4 
ounces; red peppers (chilies) and powdered ginger, 2 ounces each; garlic 
and small onions, 1 ounce each. Pound the whole well, and add 3 quarts 
of best cider or wine vinegar—or vinegar made from beer—and 1 quart of 
lemon juice. Let it stand in the vessel a month, but give it a good shake 
daily. Then pour off the clear liquid and bottle it. The residue may be 
used in aid of a second batch of sauce, or, rubbed up into a very smooth 
paste, may form a constituent of French mustard. 

SAUERKRAUT—To make.— Take a large strong wooden vessel, or 
cask resembling a salt-beef cask, and capable of holding as much as is suf¬ 
ficient for the winter’s consumption of a family. Gradually break down or 
chop the cabbages (deprived of outside green leaves) in very small pieces; 
begin with one or two cabbages at the bottom of the cask, and add others at 
intervals, pressing them by means of a wooden spade against the side of 
the cask, until it is full. Then place a heavy weight upon the top of it, and 
allow it to stand near a warm place for from four to five days. By this time 
it will have undergone fermentation, and be ready for use. Whilst the cab¬ 
bages are passing the process of fermentation, a very disagreeable, fetid, 
acid smell is exhaled from them ; now remove the cask to a cool situation, 
and keep it always covered up. Strew anise-seeds among the layers of the 
cabbages during its preparation, which communicate a peculiar flavor to 
the sauerkraut at an after period. 

In boiling it for the table, two hours are the period for it to be on the fire. 
It forms an excellent, nutritious and antiscorbutic food for winter use. 

Or, shred very finely six white cabbages, having cut out the stalks; mix 
them with a pound of salt, and press them as closely as possible into a cask; 
put over a cloth, then a wooden cover, and upon that a heavy weight; let 
it stand in a warm cellar for two months, keeping the liquor that rises on it, 
and it will be fit for use. It should then be removed to a cooler place. 

In Germany half an ounce of juniper-berries, anise-seed, or caraway- 
seeds would be added to the above; but this is not recommended for 
American taste. 

CNIPES ROASTED.—Do not draw them, but spit on a bird-spit; flour 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


371 


and baste well with butter; prepare a slice of toasted bread, lay it in a 
plate under the birds; roast for about thirty minutes; place them on the 
toast; butter, garnish with slices of lemon and parsley, and serve. 

SODA CAKES.—Mix a teaspoonful of soda and one of tartaric acid with 
half a teaspoonful of salt; melt five ounces of butter in a large cupful of 
milk; add these ingredients to one pound of flour, half a pound of moist 
sugar, and two ounces of caraway seeds. 

SHAD—To fry. —Clean the fish, cut off the head and split down the 
back; save the roe and eggs when taking out the entrails. Cut the fish in 
pieces about three inches wide, rinse each in cold water, and dry on a 
cloth ; use wheat flour to rub each piece. Have ready hot salted lard and 
lay in the fish, inside down, and fry till of a fine brown, when turn and fry 
on the other side. Fry the egg and roe with the fish. 

SOUP— Coloring for. —As soups often require coloring, it is well to 
prepare browning for that purpose. 2 baked onions, well browned in the 
oven and then chopped fine, make an excellent coloring and flavoring. 
The shells of green peas, dried in the oven until they are brown, but not 
black, will also answer to brown soup, and will keep all winter if hung in a 
perfectly dry place. 

SOUP— Stock for. —4 pounds of shin-bone, and 1 pound of lean neck 
of beef, 4 carrots, 1 turnip, 1 stick of celery, 2 parsnips, 2 leeks, 1 onion, 
6 cloves, 6 peppers, a bunch of sweet herbs, 1 gallon of water. Cut the 
meat into slices, crack the bone, and put into an earthen pipkin that will 
stand the fire, as this makes far better soup than a metal saucepan; add 
the water and let it stew slowly until the scum rises, and skim it clear; stick 
the cloves into the onion and then add the vegetables, and let the whole 
stew slowly till the meat is in rags, which will be in about 8 hours. It must 
simmer very slowly, for if it boils the meat will not yield the gravy so well, 
and the stock will be thick in the place of being clear. After it is cold it 
should be strained through a colander, and kept in a covered pan or j a 
for use. 

SOUP— Herb. —Slice three large, but young cucumbers, a handful or 
spring onions, and six lettuces; cut the last small. Put into a stewpan 
eight ounces of butter, and with it the above vegetables; when the butter 
has melted, cover, and let it stand over a slow fire an hour and twenty 
minutes. Add as much stock as may be required for the quantity of soup 
intended to be served; let it boil and simmer for an hour, then thicken with 
flour and butter, or three table-spoonfuls of cream. If desired to be col¬ 
ored, use spinach juice. 

SOUP— Mock turtle. —Take i^- pounds of lean veal, or tripe (which 
is best,) cut it into small slices and fry of a delicate brown. Cut the meat 


372 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


from three cow-heels in tolerably large pieces, then put it with the fried veal 
or tripe into pints of weak gravy, with three anchovies, a little salt, some 
cayenne pepper, three blades of mace, nine cloves, the green part of three 
leeks, three sprigs of lemon thyme, some parsley and lemon peel; chop 
these last very fine before using them ; let the whole stew gently for three 
hours, then squeeze the juice of three lemons to it, add three glasses of 
Madeira wine, and let it stew for one hour more; then skim off the fat and 
seiwe. 

SOUP— Ox-tail. —Same as gravy soup, adding about three ox-tails, 
separated at the joints; when the meat upon them is tender, it is done; 
they must not be over-stewed; add a spoonful of catsup or Harvey sauce, 
and send to table with pieces of the tail in the soup. 

SOUP— Pepper-pot. —Put in a stew-pan three quarts of water, to this 
add celery, turnips, carrots, lettuce, cut small, also add the bones of cold 
roast meat of any description, half a pound of bacon, and the same weight 
of salted pork; stew gently until the meat is tender, taking care to skim 
when it first boils. Boil half a peck of spinach and rub it through a col¬ 
ander, take the bones out of the soup and add the spinach, with it the meat 
of a lobster or crab minced, season with plenty of cayenne pepper, and salt 
to taste. Suet dumplings may be boiled with it, or a fowl, but this is a mat¬ 
ter of taste. Mutton or beef may be substituted for bacon or pork; this 
will be obvious when it is understood that a pepper-pot is presumed to con¬ 
sist of an equal proportion of flesh, fish, fowl and vegetables. 

SOUP— Vegetable. —Peel and slice six large onions, six potatoes, six 
carrots, and four turnips; fry them in a half a pound of butter, and pour on 
them four quarts of boiling water. Toast a crust of bread as brown and 
hard as possible—but do not burn it, and put it in, with some celery, sweet 
herbs, white pepper and salt. Stew it all gently for four hours, and then 
strain it through a coarse cloth. Have ready thinly sliced carrot, celery 
and a little turnip. Add them to your liking, and stew them tender in the 
soup. If approved of, a spoonful of tomato catsup may be added. 

SOUP— Gumbo. —Fry a light brown two pounds of the round of beef 
with four sliced onions; put into the soup pot with four quarts of water, 
half a can of tomatoes or twelve fresh ones, one teacupful of sliced okra 
and one green pepper; boil slowly five hours and put through the colander. 
Throw into the tureen some sippets of fried bread and serve at once. 

SOUP— Rice. —Steep some fine rice in cold water for an hour, say four 
ounces, then boil it, add three quarts of gravy, a pinch of cayenne, a little 
salt, and boil five minutes. 

SOUP— Sago. —Take three pounds of lean beef, a slice of lean ham, 
and lay them in a stew-pan with a lump of butter, draw the gravy gently, 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


373 


add two quarts of water, and a sliced onion which has been browned by- 
frying in fresh butter; also add a bunch of sweet herbs, six cloves, a blade 
of mace, a teaspoonful of allspice, and one of black pepper whole; stew 
until the soup is rich and brown, then remove the meat, and strain the soup 
clear, put it into a clean stew-pan, and thicken it to a good consistency 
with sago. 

SOUP— Vermicelli. —Blanch as the Italian paste, but first give the ver¬ 
micelli a squeeze to break it a little, or otherwise it will hang disagreeably 
about the ladle or spoon, in eating, at the risk of spoiling a lady’s dress or 
causing a confused blush. Season as before. 

SUMMER SQUASH—To cook. —Take them before the seeds begin to 
harden, wash or wipe them clean, remove the stem and cut in pieces; boil 
till quite soft; pour off all the water you can; mash as fine as possible, 
after which put it into a clean cloth or bag, and squeeze out the rest of the 
water. Turn out into a dish, and season with salt, butter, or thick, sweet 
cream, and pepper to your taste. 

SWEETBREADS—As cutlets. —If you cannot get the heart sweet¬ 
breads, you must use the throat. Blanch them for about ten minutes; then 
put them to cool into cold water; take them out, and dry them in a cloth; 
then cut, lengthwise, twelve or fourteen pieces for cutlets, making them a 
nice shape ; if you wish for them to be white saute cutlets, you must put 
some butter or lard in your cutlet-pan, a juice of lemon, a little white 
pepper and salt; do not color them; take them up, and lay them upon 
white paper to soak up the grease from them ; dish them round upon a 
tureen, pouring the sauce in the middle of them. 

TEA— Art of making. —Use soft water, and be sure it boils. If you 
are compelled to use hard water, throw into the kettle a pinch of carbonate 
of soda; but the latter should never be used unless the water requires cor¬ 
rection, and then very moderately, for it is apt to destroy the delicate 
roughness of the flavor. Put your tea into the empty pot, and be sure 
you use enough. Some persons practice a foolish economy in this matter, 
and use so little that the product is not much better than plain hot water. 
Then place the pot before the fire, or on the hob, or still better, on the hot 
plate of an oven, till the tea is well heated, but of course, not burnt; then 
pour upon it the boiling water, and a fragrant infusion of good strength is 
instantly produced. 

TOMATO SOUP.—Wash, scrape, and cut small the red part of three 
large carrots, three heads of celery, four large onions, and two large tur¬ 
nips ; put them into a sauce-pan with a tablespoonful of butter and one- 
half a pound of lean new ham ; let them stew very gently for an hour; 
then add three quarts of brown gravy soup and some whole black pepper, 


374 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


with eight or ten ripe tomatoes; let it boil an hour and a half, and pulp it 
through a sieve; serve it with fried bread cut in dice. 

TURNIPS—To cook. —Full-grown turnips will take about ij hours’ 
gentle boiling; if you slice them, which most people do, they will be done 
sooner; try them with a fork; when tender take them up and lay them on 
a sieve till the water is thoroughly drained from them. Send them up 
whole; do not slice them. 

TURKEY—To choose. —In choosing a turkey, the age of the bird is 
the chief point to be attended to. An old turkey has rough and reddish 
legs; a young one smooth and black. Fresh killed, the eyes are full and 
clear, and the feet moist. When it has been kept too long, the parts about 
the vent begin to wear a greenish, discolored appearance. 

TURKEY— Dressing for. —Take dry pieces of bread or crackers, chop 
them fine, put in a small piece of butter or a little cream, with sage, pepper 
and salt, i egg and a small quantity of flour moistened with milk. 

TURKEY— Steamed. —All poultry, after dressing, should remain in cold 
water from twenty minutes to half an hour, to extract the blood; then hang 
in a cool place for twenty-four hours, in winter even longer. They will be 
much sweeter and finer flavored for it. When ready to cook a turkey, see 
that every pin-feather is taken out, rinse in cold water, and wipe dry with a 
cloth used for nothing but such purposes; rub the inside with pepper and 
salt, and fill with oysters, carefully washed in their own liquor to remove bits 
of shells; sew up the turkey, place in a large dish, and set it in a steamer 
over boiling water; lay a clean cloth over the steamer and shut the cover 
on tight, and steam till tender—two and a half hours, or if large, three 
hours—run a fork into the breast to see if done. If it seems tender, and 
no reddish juice flows out, it is ready to take up ; strain the gravy and put 
into the oyster sauce, which should be ready while the turkey is cooking, 
made like stewed oysters, and thickened with farina or butter and flour; let 
it just boil up and add, if you like it white, a little boiled cream; pour this 
over the steamed turkey, and serve hot. Or, if preferred, the turkey may 
be stuffed as for a common baked turkey, and steamed; or it may be stuffed 
with good plump chestnuts after the skins are removed, and the gravy made 
with giblets chopped fine, adding a little flour as you chop, and the gravy 
from the dish stirred to it, and set over the fire to boil up. While the gravy 
is being made, rub a little butter over and sprinkle the turkey with flour 
very slightly, and set in a hot oven to brown delicately. Many prefer this 
to sending to the table right from the steamer with white gravy poured on. 

TURKEY— Roast. —It is stuffed with either sausage-meat or fillet of 
veal stuffing. While roasting, a piece of paper should be placed over the 
part stuffed, as, being bulky, it will catch the fire, and become scorched; 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


37 $ 


but keep the heat well to the breast, in order that it may be as well done as 
the rest of the bird; baste well and froth it up; serve with gravy in the 
dish, and bread-sauce in a tureen; to the sausage-meat, if used, add a few 
bread-crumbs and a beaten egg. Turkey is sometimes stuffed with truf¬ 
fles. They are prepared thus: They must be peeled and chopped, and 
pounded in a mortar. Quantities of a pound and a half will be found suf¬ 
ficient. Rasp the same weight of fat bacon, and mix it with the truffles; 
stuff the turkey with it. This stuffing is usually placed in the turkey two 
days previous to the cooking. It is supposed to impart a flavor to the flesh 
of the fowl. Cut thin slices of fat bacon, and place over the breast of the 
turkey; secure it with half a sheet of clean white paper, and roast. Chest¬ 
nuts dressed in the same fashion are found an excellent substitute for truf¬ 
fles. Two hours will roast it. 

TURKEY— Stuffing for. —Take some bread crumbs and turn on just 
enough hot water to soften them; put in a piece of butter, not melted, the 
size of a hen’s egg, and a spoonful of pulverized sage, a tea-spoonful of 
ground pepper, and a tea-spoonful of salt; there may be some of the bread 
crumbs that need to be chopped; then mix thoroughly and stuff your turkey. 

VEAL CUTLETS— Broiled. —Cut the pieces of veal of an equal thick¬ 
ness ; dip them into beaten egg, and sprinkle them with chopped herbs, 
parsley, mushrooms, grated lemon-peel, and crumbs of bread; broil them 
to a fine brown color. Make a sauce of butter and flour melted brown, 
moistened with veal gravy; put into it some button mushrooms, and pour 
the sauce hot over the cutlets. 

VEAL— Stewed. —Divide into portions part of a breast of veal, and fry 
it of a nice brown in butter. Put into a stew-pan a quart of green peas, 
together with onions and parsley. When they are tender add some veal 
gravy, and put in the pieces of veal already fried, and stew the whole 
gently. Season with salt, pepper, and a tea-spoonful of powdered sugar. 

VEAL CHOPS— Breaded. —Take six or seven handsomely cut chops, 
season them with salt and pepper, and put them into melted butter. When 
sufficiently soaked put them into beaten eggs, take them out, and roll each 
separately in bread crumbs; make the chops as round as you can with 
your hand, and lay them in a dish. When all are breaded, broil them 
slowly over a moderate fire, that the bread may not be too highly colored. 
Serve with clear gravy. 

VEAL—To roast. —Season a breast of veal with pepper and salt; 
skewer the sweet-bread firmly in its place; flower the meat and roast it 
slowly for about four hours before a moderate fire; it should be of a fine 
brown, but not dry; baste it with butter. When done, put the gravy in a 
stew-pan, add a piece of butter rolled in brown flour, and if there should be 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


376 

not quite enough gravy, add a little more water, with pepper and salt to 
taste. The gravy should be brown. 

VEGETABLES—To boil.— Vegetables must be carefully cleaned from 
insects and very nicely washed. Boil them in plenty of water, the water to 
be boiling before they are put into it, and they should be drained the mo¬ 
ment they are cooked enough. If over-boiled they will lose their beauty 
and crispness. Bad cooks sometimes dress them with meat, which is wrong, 
except carrots or cabbage with boiling beef. In order to boil vegetables of 
a good green color, take care that the water boils when they are put in. 
Make them boil very fast. Do not cover, but watch them, and if the water 
has not slackened, you may be sure they are done when they begin to sink. 
Then take them out immediately, or the color will change. Hard water, 
especially if chalybeate, spoils the color of such vegetables as should be 
green. To boil them green in hard water, put a teaspoonful of carbonate of 
soda or potash into the water when boiling, before the vegetables are put in. 

VEGETABES—To make tender. —When peas, French beans, etc., do 
not boil easily, it has usually been imputed to the coolness of the season, 
or to the rains. This popular notion is erroneous. The difficulty of boil¬ 
ing them soft arises from an excess of gypsum imbibed during their growth. 
To correct this, throw a small quantity of subcarbonate of soda into the 
pot along with the vegetables. 

VENISON—To roast.— Spit a haunch of venison, and butter well four 
sheets of paper, two of which put on the haunch. Then make a paste of 
flour, butter and water; roll it out half as big as the haunch, and put it over 
the fat part; then put the other two sheets of paper on, and tie them with 
pack-thread. Lay it to a brisk fire, and baste it well all the time of roasting. 
If a large haunch of twenty-four pounds, it will take three and a half hours; 
smaller in proportion. 

VENISON STEAKS— Broiled.— Wash them and wipe them dry. Put 
them on the gridiron, over a clear fire, and broil them; then season with 
salt and pepper, and baste them with butter. Serve with currant jelly. 

WILD DUCKS—To roast.— For roasting a wild duck you must have a 
clear, brisk fire and a hot spit. It must be browned upon the cut side with¬ 
out being sodden within. To have it well frothed and full of gravy is the 
nicety. Prepare the fire by stirring and raking it just before the bird is laid 
down, and fifteen or twenty minutes will do it in the fashionable way; but if 
you like it a little more done allow it a few minutes longer; if it is too much 
done it will lose much of its flavor. 

BREAD—How to make good.— One great difficulty with many house¬ 
wives is “ bread,” and to overcome that we give a few good suggestions : 
Bread made of hop yeast and water is the healthiest, most palatable, and 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


377 


requires less labor than any other kind. Milk-rising is whiter, and looks 
better when freshly cut from the loaf; but it needs to be watched very care¬ 
fully when rising to be taken at exact the moment of fermentation, 
and dries quicker than that made from hops; moreover, the smell of it, 
after being closely shut up, is not pleasant. 

Sour milk bread we discard entirely for the quantity of saleratus which it 
requires. The best medical authorities tell us that this drug is a slow poi¬ 
son. It is difficult for housekeepers to discard it entirely, but the less we 
use the better for the health of our families. 

Cream of tartar and soda bread is liable to the same objections ; and, 
moreover, the appetite soon wearies of it. 

Potato yeast is nutritious and palatable, makes a light, spongy loaf, and 
rises quickly, but does not keep as well as hop-yeast. We never succeed 
well with this unless we have hop-yeast to work it with; but grated pota¬ 
toes, or potatoes boiled and sifted, and added to the yeast, make a pleasant 
addition to the dough. 

Without good yeast we cannot succeed in bread-making. The follow¬ 
ing is our method: A tea-cup of hops, thrown into a quart of boiling 
water; let it boil three or four minutes; strain; thicken with wheat flour; 
add a tea-spoonful of sugar, and, when lukewarm, a tea-cup of yeast. 
This, if placed in a moderately warm place, will be ready to use in three 
hours. Many housekeepers say that they keep their yeast three or four 
weeks. We prefer to make it as often as once a week, as it requires less 
soda; and we fancy that new yeast makes the best bread. A tea-cup of 
this yeast, in two quarts of flour, wild make a dough ready to mold in three 
hours. We have a small wooden rack on purpose to hold pans of bread 
when rising, and find it quite an aid in our kitchen. It is made of slats and 
is suspended above the stove, so that the hot air rises and passes freely 
around the pans. It will hold three loaves, one above another; and if one 
wishes to be very exact, a thermometer hung near will soon teach us the 
proper temperature for raising the bread in the shortest time. Some experi¬ 
ence is necessary in ascertaining the proper time for placing the bread in 
the oven. When not quite light enough, it cracks or runs over in the oven; 
if it rises too much, the sweetness of the dough is lost. It should not 
stand long enough to acquire a sharp, acid taste, but should be light and 
puffy to the touch. A common-size brick loaf requires fifty minutes’ bak¬ 
ing in a stove just hot enough not to burn the crust. Too slow a fire 
spoils bread. A good, rich, even, brown crust is produced in the time 
mentioned. A slack-baked loaf looks to us very much like an untidy 
morning-dress, loosely put on. Some say the bread is tender not to be 
thoroughly baked. We are sure it will make very tender stomachs* The 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


378 

kneading of bread requires some practice. Cutting it with a knife when 
on the board, and working it lightly, and with quick movement, for fifteen 
minutes, improves the loaf, making the air-cells uniform. Bread with large 
holes, like a house with cracked ceilings, and doors that gape when fastened,, 
shows lack of skill in the maker. 

We have spoken only of bread made of fine wheat. It is an addition 
to the table, and we think beneficial to the health, to have some coarser 
bread for variety. 

BREAD— Family. —Take one quart of sifted flour, and half a pint of 
lukewarm water; mix these into smooth batter, and stir into it half a gill 
of yeast, cover it with flour, and set to rise. When it is light, add a little 
salt and a quarter pound of lard, and knead all well, with sufficient flour 
to form a soft dough; form this into loaves, place them in pans, and set to 
rise again; when light, bake. 

To one pint of flour add one gill of yeast, and make this up with tepid 
milk or lukewarm water into a soft paste; then cover it with about a pint of 
flour, and set it to rise in a warm place, and when quite light work well in 
two quarts of flour, and milk sufficent to make it into a stiff dough, adding 
a little salt; knead it well and set to rise again. Bake in pan. 

Use soda or salaratus dissolved in a little milk. 

BISCUITS.—A very good biscuit may be made as follows, without the 
use of ferment; they are called Maryland biscuit, and if well made are 
nice for breakfast or tea. Take any desired quantity of flour, put in salt* 
and a lump of lard; rub it well into the flour, and moisten it with sweet 
new milk; work it well, and beat it with a rolling-pin until perfectly light. 
Bake in a moderate oven to a light brown color. 

BREAD —Potato. —Take four or five good mealy potatoes, and after 
boiling, peel and mash well; add a large spoonful of flour and enough hot 
water to make a thin batter; when cool enough add a small quantity of 
good yeast and a spoonful of sugar; set to rise in a moderately warm 
place, say by the stove or fire-place; it rises very quickly. When risen, 
take two large spoonfuls of it for one pint and a half of flour, a small 
spoonful of lard or butter, a one-half pint of milk, and hot water enough 
to make it into a stiff batter, (over night;) beat well; next morning work 
it well into a smooth dough and make into rolls or loaves; set in a warm 
place to rise again, and bake in a quick oven. Do not forget a teaspoon¬ 
ful of salt and one of yeast powder sifted in the dry flour that you work 
into the batter in the morning; a tin bucket is best, with a tight cover, and 
a towel between it and the bucket. If your flour is good, there is no bet¬ 
ter recipe than this; no hops are needed. 

BREAD— Rice. —Take one pound of rice, and boil it gently to a thick 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


379 


paste, which, when mixed with the usual quantity of yeast, will be sufficient 
to make five pounds of wheat or barley meal into a dough. When risen, 
bake it in the usual way. 

BREAD— Rye. —Scald one cup of flour with one cup of boiling water, 
half a teaspoonful of salt, four tablespoonfuls of molasses, a large cup of 
yeast, three cups of rye, six cups of flour, three cups of warm water; stir 
well with a spoon, set it to rise twelve hours. 

BREAD— Sago. —This light and nutritious article for invalids is made 
in the following manner: two pounds of sago to be well soaked in water 
or milk for several hours; mix it with as much flour; add saleratus and 
good yeast, (a little Indian meal, if liked;) when well raised give it a 
handsome bake. It is delicious, healthy and cheap. 

BREAD— Brown. —Take two quarts of Indian meal, one quart of 
wheat flour, one and a half cups of molasses, one tablespoonful of soda, 
sour milk enough to mix it quite stiff; put it promptly into the oven, and 
bake an hour. It makes six bars. 

FLOUR—How to select. —First.—Look at its color ; if it is white with 
slightly yellowish or straw-colored tint, it is a good sign. If it is very 
white with a bluish cast, or with black specks in it, the flour is not good. 
Second.—Examine its adhesiveness—wet and knead a little of it between 
the fingers; if it works dry and elastic, it is good; if it works soft and 
sticky, it is poor. Flour made from spring wheat is likely to be sticky. 
Third.—Throw a little lump of the dry flour against a dry, smooth, perpen¬ 
dicular surface, if it adheres in a lump, the flour has life in it; if it falls like 
powder it is bad. Fourth.—Squeeze some of the flour in your hand •, if it 
retains the shape given by the pressure, that too is a good sign. Flour 
that will stand these tests it is safe to buy. These rules were given by old 
flour-dealers, and we make no apology for printing them, as they pertain to 
a matter that concerns everybody, namely, the quality of that which is the 
“ staff of life. ” 

BREAD— Boston brown. —Take 2 cups corn-meal, 2 cups sour milk, 1 
cup wheat-flour, J or -§ of a cup molasses, 2 teaspoonfuls soda; steam briskly 
2 J hours; bake slowly £ hour. 

BREAD — Graham. — Housekeepers who have no gem-pans can 
make very nice warm Graham bread for breakfast in several ways. Make 
a dough of Graham flour and sweet milk (skimmed or creamy, as you pre¬ 
fer, or find convenient,) stiff enough to roll out easily. Knead this a little, 
roll it an inch thick, and cut it into diamonds; or cut off strips and make 
it into rolls with the hand; or roll it into balls two inches in diameter, flat¬ 
tening them a little or not at all, as you choose; or roll the dough very thin 
and cut it into square crackers. pricking them well to prevent their puffing. 


38° 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Crackers are best with some cream in the mixing, and crackers require more 
kneading than diamonds and rolls, which are expected to be soft inside. 

Any of these kinds of bread—diamonds, rolls, balls, and crackers— 
are baked upon the grate in the oven, which should be wiped off clean. 
They will not stick to it, and will bake very fast. We recommend the crack¬ 
ers in particular. All these breads are sweeter and better, we think, with¬ 
out salt, but most people prefer salt in their crackers. 

BREAD— Graham. —To i quart of buttermilk add J cup of sweet milk, 
J cup molasses, i tablespoonful soda dissolved in the milk, a little salt; 
thicken with unsifted Graham to the consistency of common cake mixtures; 
bake in a slow oven until a broom splint will not adhere. This makes one 
large loaf. 

BREAD—To keep moist. —Place in the bread pan a board pierced with 
holes, and so supported as to be a couple of inches from the bottom of the 
pan ; let there be an inch depth of water in the pan; put the bread on the 
board, and cover the pan with the lid. The inclosed air will then prevent 
the bread from becoming too dry. 

BREAD —Corn.— i quart of buttermilk, i quart of Indian meal, i quart 
of coarse flour, i cup of molasses; add a little soda and salt. 

Another. —To 2 quarts of meal add 1 pint of bread sponge; water suf¬ 
ficient to wet the whole ; add \ pint of flour and a tablespoonful of salt; 
let it rise; then knead well for the second time, and place the dough in the 
oven, and allow it to bake an hour and a half. 

Another. —2 cups corn-meal, 1 cup flour, 2 eggs, 1 quart milk (if not 
sufficient add a little water,) 1 good tablespoonful of butter, melted, table¬ 
spoonful of syrup. Mix meal and flour together with a little salt, and about 
5 teaspoonfuls of yeast powder. Mix well with the milk, add the eggs 
beaten, then the butter, last the syrup. Should be a good thick batter. 
Grease your tin pans well; 15 to 20 minutes to bake. 

BUNS— Lemon. —Take two pounds fine flour, one-half pound sugar, 
four ounces butter, two eggs, three-fourths of a pint of buttermilk, six 
drachms of carbonate of soda, and ten or twelve drops essence of lemon. 
Mix the same as tea-cakes, and bake fifteen minutes. 

CARAMEL— Chocolate. —Not quite a half-pound of Baker’s sweet 
chocolate grated fine, a quarter of a pound of butter, a teacupful of cream. 
After allowing it to come to a boil, cook it for thirty minutes, stirring dili¬ 
gently all the while. Put in one tablespoonful of extract of vanilla just 
before taking the candy off the fire. Spread thin on buttered dishes, and 
with a knife dipped in cold water mark off into small square cakes. 

CHARLOTTE— Apple. —Take a square loaf of baker’s bread, cut into 
thin slices of bread and butter (fresh butter.) Peel, core, and cut up suf- 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


381 


ficient of nice baking apples in proportion, the number determined by the 
size. Take a pie-dish, line it with bread and butter, crust and all. Next 
make a layer of apple at the bottom; then of sugar; then of bread and 
butter, and so on till the dish be filled. It must be baked enough to render 
the apple perfectly soft and mellow. Before serving to table, turn it out in 
a dish. It ought to keep its shape, and eat almost like a sweetmeat, all 
the ingredients being thorougly blended in the baking process. 

CARAMELS— Chocolate. —Three pounds white or brown sugar (brown 
preferred,) one pound chocolate, one pint milk, half pound butter, and 
vanilla to taste at the last; cook until the edges of the pan become a little 
sugary, then pour into shallow pans well greased. 

CAKE— Making. —For making cake, one should have a good-sized 
bowl, a strong wooden spoon, a good egg-beater, fine sifted flour, fresh 
eggs, the sweetest butter, powdered sugar and flavoring. But these are not 
all the requisites. A wooden spoon is useless without a strong untiring arm 
to wield it; and the finest of flour, the best of butter, the freshest of eggs 
will avail nothing unless properly mixed. 

In what manner is cake properly mixed ? Experience has taught us that 
the following is a good rule: First, beat the butter and sugar together for 
a very long time, until the mass has the appearance and texture of ice 
cream. 

It is surprising how the bulk appears to increase with long continued 
beating. We were once shown two cakes, containing precisely the same 
quantity of materials, and the one which had been stirred half an hour 
longer than the other was one-third larger and was in far greater propor¬ 
tion lighter and more delicate. 

After the butter and sugar are creamed as above directed, separate the 
yolks and whites of the eggs. Beat the former until all the large bubbles- 
disappear, and stir into the butter and sugar. Next the requisite quantity 
of flour is stirred in, and if milk is used it should be added. Then beat 
the whites of eggs until very stiff, and add them, stirring all the time. Next 
the flavoring extract is put in, and, last of all, the baking powder. 

Stir this mixture faithfully, and have ready a buttered pan, which should 
be lined with white paper; drop the batter into it; smooth it around evenly 
and set it in a moderate oven. If the oven is too hot, the cake will rise 
unevenly and be apt to split across the top. It is a good plan to bake cake 
after bread has been baked in the oven. 

If you feel doubtful of a cake before baking, and wish to try it, before 
putting in the baking powder take out a spoonful of the batter into a pie- 
pan and stir into it about half a thimbleful of baking powder and set in the 
oven. It is a bad plan to stir the baking powder into the whole and let it 
stand while you are baking some. 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


382 

There are cake-makers who discard the use of baking powders—using 
soda and cream of tartar instead. Our own experience leads us to prefer 
the former, as being less troublesome, and quite as effective. It must be 
stirred in thoroughly, however, or the cake will be very porous, and conse¬ 
quently will soon get dry. 

CAKE—How to know when done. —You can always know whether 
cake is done or not by holding it near the ear. If it “ sings,” there are 
little bubbles of water-boiling inside, and all is not hardened; if it is silent 
the cake is done. 

CAKE— Apple fruit. —Take two cups of dried apples; having soaked 
them over night, cut them up in small pieces and boil soft; add three cups 
of molasses and boil three minutes; then add one teacupful of shortening 
(half fresh lard and half butter is best), one teacupful of sour milk, 
and one large teaspoonful of soda, two eggs when the apples are cool; 
spices to taste; put in the oven and bake. 

CAKES— Buckwheat are many times better, and more wholesome 
when made light and thin; at night mix the flour with milk, warm water, a 
little salt, a half teacupful of good yeast into rather a stiff batter and set 
it in a warm place to rise. In the morning thin the batter with milk and 
add soda dissolved in hot water. They ought not to be baked up in large 
quantities and pitched into a deep dish—that makes them heavy—but 
laid in neat piles on a flat plate, and baked as fast as needed at the table,, 

CAKES— Buttermilk. —To two pounds of flour rub one of butter; add 
three-quarters of a pound of currants; two ounces of candied peel; one 
pint of buttermilk, and one ounce of carbonate soda. * Mix and beat them 
well together, and bake in a tin. This makes a splendid cake. 

CAKE— Cocoanut. —Break 8 eggs, of which set aside four whites. 
Beat separately the remaining four whites and eight yolks till very light, 
ij pounds of flour, sifted; 1 pound of sugar, pulverized; A a pound of but¬ 
ter, creamed; one cup of sour cream or buttermilk, and a teaspoonful of 
Bicarbonate of soda—the two latter ingredients to be added the last thing, 
just before you are ready to bake. Bake in large flat tin plates, so as to 
form many thin cakes. Grate two fresh, sweet cocoanuts, and add to them 
1 pound of sifted white sugar, with the lightly beaten whites of the 4 eggs 
laid aside for the purpose; 2 teaspoonfuls of corn-starch. Stir all well to¬ 
gether, including the cocoanut milk drained from both nuts. When the 
cakes are quite cold, place one in the bottom of a large china plate, cover 
it well with the prepared cocoanut, and continue thus to heap up cake and 
cocoanut in alternate layers, until all of each material is consumed. If for 
any other than every-day use, cover the whole with icing. This quantity 
makes a very large cake. If only a small one is needed, one cocoanut will 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


383 


answer, with half of everything else. This recipe supplies a cake of deli¬ 
cate yet luscious flavor, and not otherwise than economical in its pro¬ 
portions. 

CAKE— Chocolate. —2 eggs, J cup of butter, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup 
sweet milk, 3 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking-powder; bake in layers? 
Take a cup and a half of white coffee sugar, put enough water on to just 
cover it, and boil until it is as thick as syrup ; beat it until it begins to look 
white like cream, then flavor with vanilla, and spread on a coating of choc¬ 
olate which has been melted by holding a hot stove griddle over it, or in the 
oven ; stir the chocolate smooth before putting on. 

CAKE— Delicate.— 1^ cups powdered sugar, \ of butter, ij of flour, 

cup corn-starch sifted with the flour, ^ cup milk, the whites of 6 eggs 
beaten to a froth, one small teaspoon cream-tartar, i teaspoon soda; flavor 
with almond or vanilla; bake in a moderate oven. 

CAKE— Fruit. —One pound of sugar and three-fourths of a pound of 
butter worked together until very light; one wine-glass full of brandy; one 
dozen cloves, ground; half a nutmeg; one teaspoonful of ground cinna¬ 
mon ; ten eggs, beat separately, the yolks to be used first, and afterward 
the whites ; one-fourth of a pound of sliced citron; two pounds of washed 
currants, rubbed in flour, and mixed in the cake with one pound of rasins, 
cut fine, and one pound seeded and left whole or cut once, and one pound 
of sifted flour. Stir in the citron, currants and the chopped rasins, and 
lastly, the flour and the whole raisins alternately. Bake in a moderate oven, 
in deep basins, two hours. If the fire is strong the heat should be decreased 
the last hour. Line the basins with buttered paper, and keep a piece over 
the top of the cake. Frost it, and it will keep three months or longer. 

CAKES— Flannel. —Mix three tablespoonfuls of flour with half a pint 
of cream; add two eggs, and beat the whole well till quite smooth; then add 
slowly half a pint of new milk, into which has been put a teaspoonful of 
baking powder. Beat all well together, and fry with lard, a little of which 
should be made hot for each cake. Eat with powdered sugar, mixed with 
cinnamon or grated nutmeg. 

CAKES— Ginger. —Make a paste with sugar, one pound; powdered 
ginger, four ounces ; flour, two pounds ; watet, one pound; butter, quarter 
pound; and one cup of candied orange peel, grated ; form them into cakes, 
and prick them with a fork before baking them. 

CAKE— Gold. —One pound of sugar, one pound of flour, three-quar¬ 
ters of a pound of butter, and the yolks of sixteen eggs; you may add a 
little saleratus or soda. Bake in shallow tins and cut in squares. 

CAKES— Greaser for. —The following is a substitute for greasing the 
griddle: Take a turnip, cut in half, rub the griddle with the inner side, 


3^4 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


and it is said that the cakes wall come off nice and smoothly, and the 
housekeeper will be rid of the disagreeable odor of burning fat. 

CAKES— Griddle, wheatmeal. —Make a porridge with about three 
heaping spoonfuls of oatmeal, hominy, rice, or very coarse corn meal, in a 
pint of water. Boil twenty or thirty minutes, or if you have either of these 
articles already cooked, it can be made much quicker. Add one pint of 
cold water and wheat meal, sifting it slowly, enough to make a batter a little 
thicker than for raised griddle cakes. Bake on slightly oiled or a soapstone 
griddle, spreading out with the spoon as you put them on. Bake them 
brown, and put them on each other as fast as cooked. Keep them close 
and warm, and let them stand ten or fifteen minutes before serving. If soft 
and sticky after standing, you have made them too thin. 

CAKE— Corn. —i. One pint of buttermilk, one pint of corn meal, two 
beaten eggs, one teaspoonful of soda; beat well together and bake in shal¬ 
low tin pans. Increase quantities for more than four or five persons. 2. 
A pint of buttermilk or sour milk, a pint of corn meal, one egg, a teaspoon¬ 
ful of soda, one of salt, two of sugar or molasses. Dissolve the soda in a 
little warm water, and add it the last thing. Bake half an hour in a quick 
oven. 

CAKES— Lemon. —Flour and sugar, of each one pound; eggs one 
dozen; grated peel and juice of four lemons; whisk the eggs to a high 
froth, and then gradually add the rest. Bake in small oval tins, well but¬ 
tered, and place six thicknesses of paper beneath each tin. Thinly ice 
them. 

CAKE— Jackson sponge. —One heaping teacupful of flour, one tea¬ 
spoonful of cream of tartar, one cup of sugar, three eggs, one-quarter tea¬ 
spoonful of soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of hot water; flavor with 
extract of lemon; beat together thoroughly and bake 15 or 20 minutes. It 
makes two bars of cake. 

CAKE— Jelly. —Three-quarter pound sugar, half pound butter, one cup 
sour milk, half teaspoonful soda stirred into the milk, six eggs, one pound 
flour; stir this well together. Bake in tin pans not more than half an inch 
thick; when baked, as you take them from the oven, lay them on a flat 
surface, spread over a layer of jelly on the top, then lay on another cake, 
then jelly, then cake; keep the best looking for the top; cut it in square 
pieces. 

CAKE— Farmer’s jelly.— Take one cup of sugar, three eggs, four table¬ 
spoonfuls melted butter, four tablespoonfuls sweet milk, two teaspoonfuls 
baking-powder, mixed with i\ cups of sifted flour; flavor with lemon. 
This makes four layers of cake. 

CAKE— Poor man’s. —This receipt, published some time ago in the 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


3*5 


Country Gentleman , has been tried and approved: Break two eggs into a 
teacup, beat, fill up the cup with good sour cream, one cup of sugar, two 
cups of flour, small teaspoonful of soda or saleratus, a little salt; flavor to 
the taste, beat well, bake quick. 

CAKE.— Rice. —Mash up cold boiled rice, add flour enough to hold 
together, two eggs and two teaspoons yeast powder; add sugar to sweeten; 
drop from a large spoon into boiling fat: when done brown, lift into a col¬ 
ander to drain; when you serve, sprinkle with white sugar. You can. 
omit sweetening if preferred. 

CAKE— Sponge. —Take five eggs, and half a pound of loaf sugar sifted;, 
break the eggs upon the sugar, and beat all together with a fork for half an 
hour. Previously take the weight of two and a half eggs, in their shells, of 
flour. After you have beaten the eggs and sugar the time specified, grate 
in the rind of a lemon (the juice may be added at pleasure,) stir in the 
flour, and immediately pour it into a tin lined with buttered paper, and let 
it be instantly put into rather a cool oven. 

CAKE— Sponge. —Four eggs, one cup of sugar; beat the yolks and 
sugar together until very light; beat the whites separately; one cup of flour 
in which has been sifted one teaspoonful of baking-powder; flavor to 
taste. 

CAKE— White cup. — One cup of fresh butter, two cups of powdered 
white sugar, four cups of sifted flour, five eggs, one cup of sour cream or 
rich milk, soda to sweeten, a grated nutmeg, and a teaspoonful of cinna¬ 
mon. Bake in small tins. 

CAKE— Wedding. —Take four quarts of flour, three pounds of butter, 
three of sugar, four of currants, two of raisins, two dozen of eggs, one 
ounce of mace, and three nutmegs, a little citron and molasses improve it. 
Bake about three hours. 

CAKE— White. —One cup of butter, two cups fine white sugar, beat 
butter and sugar to a cream, add whites of eight eggs beaten to a froth, 
three cups of flour, one teaspoonful soda dissolved in a teaspoonful of 
vinegar, and lastly add one cup of sour cream, and bake quickly. This 
cake is splendid when made right. 

CREAM COOKIES.—One teacup of sour cream, two cups of sugar, 
one egg, teaspoon of saleratus, flour to roll out, nutmeg or seeds. 

COOKIES.—One cup of sugar, two-thirds cup butter filled with water, 
one egg, half teaspoon soda dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water; mix 
soft, roll quite thin, cut any desired shape, and bake in a quick oven. 

CREAM FRITTERS.—Mix a pint and a half of wheat flour with a pint 
of milk; beat six eggs to a froth and stir them into the flour; grate in half 
a nutmeg, add a pint of cream, a couple of teaspoonfuls of salt. Stir the 

24 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


386 

whole just long enough to have the cream get well mixed in, then fry the 
mixture in small cakes. 

CREAM TOAST.—Make some dry toast, have a saucepan of milk boil¬ 
ing, into which put quarter pound of butter, stir into this sufficient flour or 
corn-starch (already wet with cold milk) to make it as thick as rich cream. 
Dip each slice of toast into this. Put into a deep dish, and pour the cream 
over it. 

CREAM PUFFS.—Half pint boiling water, one cup of butter, two cups 
of flour. Let the water and butter boil, then stir in the flour. Let it cool. 
Add five eggs, well beaten. Beat all well. Drop in muffinrings. Bake 
thirty minutes. Boil one pint of milk. Beat together one - cup of flour, 
one cup of sugar and two eggs ; add this to the boiling milk and boil three 
minutes; cut a hole in the top of each cake and fill with cream, putting the 
piece of crustback. 

GINGER CRACKERS.—To two quarts of flour, moistened with one 
quart of molasses, add a heaping tablespoonful of butter, one tablespoon¬ 
ful of ground ginger, and a teaspoonful of cinnamon. Dissolve one tea¬ 
spoonful of bicarbonate of soda in a little buttermilk or sour cream. Roll 
out thin, cut into shapes with cake-cutters, and bake quickly. 

ALMOND CREAM.—Boil one quart of cream with a grated nutmeg, a 
blade or two of mace, a bit of lemon peel, and sugar to your taste; then 
blanch one-quarter of a pound of almonds, and beat them very fine with a 
tablespoonful of rose-water or orange-flower water; beat well the whites of 
nine eggs, strain them to the almonds ; beat them together and rub them 
well through a coarse hair-sieve; mix it with the cream; set it on the fire, 
and stir it all one way until it almost boils; pour it into a bowl and stir it 
till cold. Put it into cups or glasses and send it to table. 

BURNT CREAM.—Set over the fire in a pan three ounces of sifted 
sugar, stir it, and when it browns, add a quart of cream and two ounces of 
isinglass; boil and stir till the latter is dissolved, when sweeten it, and strain 
into molds.—Or, this cream may be made by boiling it without sugar, add¬ 
ing the yolks of four eggs, sweetening and sifting over it in a dish loaf- 
sugar, to be browned with a salamander. 

CREAM— Bleached. —Take a quart of the thickest cream that can be 
got; sweeten it with fine sugar and orange-flower water; boil it and beat 
the whites of twenty eggs with a little cold cream; strain it, and when the 
cream is upon the boil, pour in the eggs, stirring it well till it comes to a 
thick curd ; then take it up and strain it again through a hair-sieve, beat it 
well with a spoon till it is cold, and put into a dish. 

CREAM— Custard. —Boil half a pint of new milk with a piece of 
lemon-peel, not very large, a stick of cinnamon, and eight lumps of white 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


387 


sugar. Should cream be employed instead of milk, there will be no occa¬ 
sion to strain it. Beat the yolks, say of four eggs; strain the milk through 
coarse muslin or a hair-sieve ; then mix the eggs and milk very gradually 
together, and simmer it gently on the fire, stirring it until it thickens, but 
removing it the moment it begins to boil, or it will curdle. A cheap and 
excellent sort is made by boiling three pints of new milk with a bit of 
lemon-peel, a bit of cinnamon, two or three bay leaves, and sweeten it. 
Meanwhile, rub down smooth a large spoonful of rice-flour into a cup of 
cold milk, and mix with it four yolks of eggs well beaten. Take a basin 
of the boiling milk, mix it with the cold, and pour that to the boiling, stir¬ 
ring it one way till it begins to thicken, and is just going to boil up; then 
pour it into a pan and stir it some time. 

CREAM— Codling. —Pare and core a score of codling apples; beat 
them in a mortar with a pint of cream ; strain it into a dish, and put sugar, 
bread-crumbs, and a glass of wine to it. Stir it well. 

CREAM— Hasty. —Take a gallon of milk from the cow, set it on the 
fire, and when it begins to rise take it off the fire, skim off all the cream and 
put it on a plate, then set the skillet on the fire again and repeat the skim¬ 
ming till your plate is full of cream; put to it some orange-flower and sugar, 
and serve it. 

CREAM— Italian. —A beautiful and elegant Italian cream may be pre¬ 
pared at the small cost of one quart of milk, six eggs, with a little flavoring 
and sugar. Besides these ingredients there are required a shallow stew- 
pan and skimming-spoon (or, in default of such an article, a fish-slicer will 
serve if thoroughly clean,) two bowls and a fork. Set a quart of milk, 
sweetened with white sugar, on the fire in the stew-pan to boil; in the mean¬ 
time break the whites of six eggs into one bowl and the yolks into the other. 
Beat up the whites to a high froth, and as soon as the milk boils take with 
the skimming-spoon large flakes, whip and lay them lightly on the boiling 
milk. After letting them boil for a few minutes repeat the operation with 
the remainder of the whites until all has been set, and pile it high in the 
centre of a glass dish. Make a custard with the yolks of the eggs and the 
milk, flavoring it with lemon or vanilla, and pour it round the snowy pyra¬ 
mid. It will maintain its place well many hours, and may be still further 
embellished according to taste by dipping some of the top flakes with the 
least possible quantity of cochineal essence. 

CREAM— Lemon. —A large spoonful of brandy, six ounces of loaf-sugar 
powdered, the peel and juice of two lemons, the peel to be grated. Mix 
these ingredients well together in a bowl; then add a pint of cream, and 
whisk it up. 

CREAM— Pine Apple. —Have some pine-apple prepared in syrup, and 


388 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


cut into small dice, putting it in your cream, with a little of syrup, the other 
process as before. 

CREAM— Raspberry. —Put six ounces of raspberry jam to a quart of 
cream, pulp it through a lawn-sieve, add to it the juice of a lemon and a 
.little sugar, and whisk it till thick. Serve it in a dish or glasses. 

CREAM— Strawberry. —Put six ounces of strawberry jam with a pint 
of cream through a sieve, add to it the juice of a lemon, whisk it fast at 
the edge of a dish, lay the froth on a sieve, add a little more juice of 
lemon, and when no more froth will rise, put the cream into a dish, or into 
glasses, and place the froth upon it, well drained. 

CREAM—To whip. —Sweeten a bowl of cream with loaf-sugar, and 
flavor it with orange-flower water, any juicy fruit, or lemon or orange, by 
rubbing sugar on the peel; set another bowl near the above, with a sieve 
over it; then whip the cream with a whisk, and as it rises in a froth, take 
it off with a skimmer, and put it into the sieve to drain ; whip also the 
cream which drains off, and, when done, ornament with lemon raspings. 
This cream may be used before it is set upon custards, trifle or syllabub. 

CRUMPETS.—Place two pounds of flour, with a little salt, before the 
fire till quite warm. Then mix it with warm milk and water till it is as stiff 
as it can be served ; let the milk be as warm as it can be borne with the 
finger; put a cupful of this with three eggs, well beaten and mixed, with 
three spoonfuls of very thick yeast; then put this to the batter, and beat 
them all together in a large pan or bowl; add as much milk or water as 
will make it into a thick batter; cover it close and put it before the fire to 
rise; put a small piece of butter in a piece of thin muslin, tie it up and rub 
it lightly over the iron hearth or frying-pan; then pour on a sufficient 
quantity of batter at a time to make one crumpet; let it do slowly, and it 
will be very light. Bake them all the same way. They should not be brown, 
but of a fine yellow color. 

CUPS— Rice. —One quart of sweet milk, one cup of rice, well washed, 
then boiled tender in water, and set away to cool; two ounces of butter. 
Put your milk on to boil, reserving a little to add to your rice, put the but¬ 
ter into the milk while it is warm, and then stir it into your rice batter, add¬ 
ing a little salt, and let the whole simmer gently twenty minutes. Rinse 
your custard cups with cold water, half fill them with the mixture, and 
when it becomes cold they will turn out and retain their form. They look 
very pretty, and are to be eaten with white sugar, nutmeg and cream. 

CURD— Naples. —Put into a quart of new milk a stick of cinnamon, 
boil it a few minutes, take out the cinnamon, and stir in eight well-beaten 
eggs and a tablespoonful of white wine; when it boils again, strain it 
through a sieve; beat the curd in a basin, together with about half an 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


389 


ounce of butter, two tablespoonfuls of orange-flower water, and pounded 
sugar sufficient to sweeten it. Put it into a mold for two hours before it is 
sent to table. White wine, sugar and cream may be mixed together and 
poured around the curd, or it may be served in a sauce tureen. 

CURD AND CREAM.—With about half a tablespoonful of rennet, turn 
two quarts of milk just from the cow; drain off the whey, and fill a mold 
with the curd; when it has stood an hour or two, turn it out. Strew col¬ 
ored comfits over it, sweeten some cream, mix grated nutmeg with it and 
pour it around the curd. 

Another. —Take a pint of boiled apples, and mash them as fine as 
possible; add the yolks of six and the whites of three eggs, well-beaten; 
one teacupful of cream, a little rose-water, some nutmeg, cinnamon, and a 
small lump of butter; mix all together and sweeten it well. Then make 
a good crust, pour in the mixture and bake in the oven. 

CUSTARD— Chocolate. —Dissolve gently by the fire an ounce and a 
half of the best chocolate in rather more than a wine-glassful of water, and 
boil it until it is perfectly smooth; mix it with a pint of milk well flavored 
with lemon-peel or vanilla, and two ounces of fine sugar, and when the 
whole boils, stir to it five well-beaten eggs that have been strained. Put 
the custard into a jar or jug, set it into a pan of boiling water, and stir it 
without ceasing until it is thick. Do not put into glasses or dish till nearly 
or quite cold. These, as well as other custards, are infinitely finer when 
made with yolks only of the eggs. 

CUSTARD— Lemon. —May be made as follows: stir three wine-glass¬ 
fuls of lemon juice, with one-quarter pound of powdered loaf-sugar, a 
glass of white wine, and half a wine-glass of water, with a little grated 
lemon peel. Mix all together, and put the ingredients into a saucepan on 
the fire, stirring it until it becomes thick and of a proper consistence. 

CUSTARD— Potato. —A cupful of mashed potatoes, four eggs, as 
much sugar as you like, enough milk to mix, and flavor with essence of 
lemon. 

CUSTARD— Rice. —Sweeten a pint of milk with loaf-sugar, boil it with 
a stick of cinnamon, stir in sifted ground rice till quite thick. Take it off 
the fire; add the whites of three eggs well beaten; stir it again over the 
fire for two or three minutes, then put it into cups that have lain in cold 
water; do not wipe them. When cold, turn them out, and put them into 
the dish in which they are to be served; pour round them a custard made 
of the yolks of the eggs and a little more than half a pint of milk. Put 
on the top a little red currant jelly, or raspberry jam. A pretty supper 
dish. 

CUSTARD— Savory. —Beat three eggs into one and a half gills of 


39 ° 


brand's cyclopedia. 


cream ; season to taste with salt, pepper, cayenne, chopped parsley, sweet 
herbs and shallot. Add to these some chopped ham and tongue. Pour 
in small round cups, and steam ten minutes. 

DOUGHNUTS.—One pint of sour milk, soda sufficient to sweeten, one 
cup of sugar, seven tablespoonfuls of melted lard, two eggs, and flour 
enough to mix up soft. 

DOUGHNUTS.—One egg, one cup of sugar, two of sour milk, one 
tablespoonful of soda, enough flour to make them just hard enough to roll 
out; make into round cakes and drop into very hot lard. 

FLOAT.—Into one quart of rich, sweet milk, boiling hot, stir the follow¬ 
ing ingredients that have previously been well beaten together: Two large 
spoonfuls of sugar, two small spoonfuls of corn-starch, and the yolks of four 
eggs. Stir rapidly until it boils, and pour immediately into a dish. Have 
the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth and sweetened a little. Spread 
them over the dish, and set it a few minutes in the oven. Don’t brown. 
Flavor with nutmegs. 

FRITTERS.—Are made of batter the same as pancakes. Drop a small 
quantity into the pan, have ready apples pared, sliced, and cored, lay them 
in the batter and fry them ; they may also be made with sliced lemon or 
currants, the latter is particularly palatable. They should be sent to table 
upon a folded napkin in a dish; any sweet-meat or dried fruit will make 
fritters. 

FLOATING ISLAND.—Six eggs; separate the yolks and white; beat 
the whites to a froth; then add two cups of sugar; beat the yolks and 
sugar together; take one quart of sweet milk, boil it, and dip in the whites; 
just boil up, and skim them out, and turn the sugar and yolks in the milk, 
and let that boil, and that makes the custard; then lay the whites on top 
of that; then it is done. 

JUMBLES.—Rub to a cream a pound of sugar, and half a pound of 
butter; add eight well-beaten eggs, essence of lemon or rose-water to the 
taste, and flour to make the jumbles thick enough for rolling out. Roll 
out in powdered sugar, about half an inch wide and four inches long, 
and form them into rings by joining the ends. Lay them on flat buttered 
tins and bake in a quick oven. 

JUMBLES— Cocoanut. —One pound of butter, three-quarters of a 
pound of sugar, three eggs, one pound of flour; add by degrees a grated 
cocoanut, so as to form a stiff dough. Bake in a quick oven. 

BLANC MANGE.—Season one quart of rich cream with five ounces 
fine white sugar and a few drops of extract of vanilla or any other flavor¬ 
ing extract preferred. Whip it to a stiff froth. After soaking one ounce 
of isinglass or gelatine in one pint of cold water for half an hour, let it 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


391 


simmer on embers until perfectly dissolved, stirring from time to time to 
prevent the gelatine from sticking to the bottom of the stewpan and burn¬ 
ing. When lukewarm, pour the cream slowly in, beating all the time until 
stiff enough to drop from a spoon, then put it in molds previously dipped 
in cold water. 

MUFFINS.—One pint of milk, one tablespoon of butter, one pint of 
flour, a small teaspoon of salt, three eggs, the whites and yolks beaten 
separately and very stiff; a small teaspoon even full of soda; add the 
whites last, beat smartly and perfectly free from lumps. Butter the griddle, 
and bake in well-buttered rings. When the bottom is done, turn over the 
ring and bake the top, or put the rings on a well-buttered bake-pan, and 
bake in a quick oven. 

MUFFINS.—One and a half pints new milk, one egg, one tablespoon 
sugar, one tablespoon butter, one teaspoon salt, one cake yeast, or better, 
half cake home-made yeast, mix with flour until a very stiff batter is 
formed; leave in a warm place during the night and bake in the morning 
in rings. 

GINGER NUTS.—Two quarts of molasses, twelve ounces of ground 
cloves, one pound of sugar, two ounces ground ginger, two ounces allspice, 
as much flour as will make a batter. 

PIE— Apple. —Cut your apples in quarters, core them and put them 
down to stew with sugar and a little water, as also a half dozen cloves; ten 
minutes will stew them. Lay your crust on your pie-plate, get some dried 
orange-peel or preserved quince, cut it in little pieces and mix with the 
stewed apple, put this in the pie and cover it with a crust, having wet the cor¬ 
ners all around, which makes the top crust adhere better to the bottom one. 

PIE— Beefsteak.— Take cold roast beef, cut it into thin slices about an 
inch and a half long. Take raw potatoes, peel and cut them into slices. 
Have ready a deep dish, lay some of the potatoes at the bottom, then a 
layer of beef, and so on till the dish is filled. Season it as you would 
chicken-pie, fill it with boiling water, cover with a crust and bake. 

PIE—A delicious. —For two pies take six eggs, one cup of butter, one 
cup of pulverized sugar, one teaspoonful of vanilla. Beat the yolks and 
sugar together till very light; beat the butter till creamy, and add it to the 
sugar and yolks. Make a puff-paste and line two deep tin pie-plates, then 
pour in the batter equally in each. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff 
froth, add to them one and a half teacups of fine white sugar, flavor with 
a little vanilla. After the pies are baked, spread over some of the frosting, 
and return to the oven and slightly brown. Just before sending to table, 
strew over the pies a couple of tablespoonfuls of coarse granulated sugar. 
This is a fine pie. 


392 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


PIE —Cherry. —Lay your crust on a deep pie-plate or pudding dish, 
stone your cherries, put them in the pudding dish with a layer of sugar, 
then cherries, then sugar, and so on till the dish is filled; put on your crust, 
make an ornament of paste for the centre and bake it; be careful to use 
a deep dish, as cherries make so much juice they require no water. 

PIE —Cocoanut. —Cut off the brown portion of the cocoanut, after 
which grate the white part, mix it with milk, place it on the fire, and let it 
boil slowly for about ten minutes. To one pound of grated cocoanut 
allow one quart of milk, eight eggs, four tablespoonfuls of sifted white 
sugar, a glass of wine, a small cracker grated fine, two spoonfuls of melted 
butter, and one-fourth of a nutmeg. Beat the eggs and sugar to a froth, 
then stir the wine in. Then put them in the milk and cocoanut, which 
must be cool; add the crackers and nutmeg, turn the whole in deep pie- 
plates, with a lining and rim of puff paste. Bake as soon as turned into 
the plates. 

PIE —Chicken. —Take two full-grown chickens, or more if they are 
small, disjoint them and cut the back-bone, etc., as small as convenient. 
Boil them with a few slices of salt pork in water enough to cover them, 
let them boil quite tender, then take out the breast-bone. After they boil 
and the scum is taken off, put in a little onion cut very fine, not enough to 
taste distinctly, but just enough to flavor a little; rub some parsley very 
fine when dry, or cut fine when green—this gives a pleasant flavor. Sea¬ 
son well with pepper and salt, and a few ounces of good fresh butter. 
When all is cooked well, have liquid enough to cover the chicken, then 
beat two eggs and stir in some sweet cream. Line a five-quart pan with a 
crust made like soda biscuit, only more shortening, put in the chicken and 
liquid, then cover with a crust the same as the lining. Bake till the crust 
is done, and you will have a good chicken pie. 

PIE —Lemon Cream. —Juice and grated rind of one lemon, yolks of 
three eggs, five table-spoonfuls of sugar, a small lump of butter and three 
table-spoonfuls of flour. 

PIE —Lemon.— One cup of sugar, yolks of two eggs, one-half cup of 
milk, one cup of water; stir well together, and place in a crust; when 
done beat the whites of the eggs, and add one tea-spoonful of extract of 
lemon ; spread this over your pie, and sprinkle with sugar; bake to a deli¬ 
cate brown. 

PIE— Mince.— Boil a piece of beef weighing six pounds, and a beef’s 
tongue weighing six pounds, six hours. Then skin the tongue, chop it and 
the beef fine, add five pounds beef suet chopped fine, five pounds raisins 
stoned, three pounds dried currants, one and one-half pounds citron, four 
pounds brown sugar, one pint good molasses, one quart brandy, one quart 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


393 


wine, or omit these and add in their place boiled cider; half a cup each of 
salt, cinnamon, allspice and cloves, three nutmegs and a table-spoonful of 
mace. Mix all well together, and let it stand over night. Mix apples 
stewed when you make the pies, as the meat keeps better without apples. 
Keep it in a stone jar. You should have about a third as much apple as 
you have of the mince meat for a batch of pies. 

PIE —Mock mince.— One cup of raisins, one cup of syrup, one cup 
of sugar, three-fourths of a cup of vinegar, one teaspoonful of allspice, 
one teaspoonful of cinnamon, three cups of water. Boil all together, and 
when cool add three soda crackers rolled fine. This will make three pies. 

PIE— Pork. —Cut a piece of the loin of pork into chops, remove the 
rind and bone, cut it into pieces, season well with pepper and salt, cover 
with puff paste, and bake the pie. When ready to be served, put in some 
cullis, with the essence of two onions mixed with a little mustard. 

PIE —Potato. —Wash and peal six pounds of potatoes, cut them in 
slices, add gravy, and a little of the fat of beef or drippings. Season the 
whole with pepper and salt; cover with paste, and bake an hour and a 
half. 

PIE— Pumpkin. —Choose the best pumpkins that can be found. Take 
■out the seeds, cut the rind carefully away, and then cut the pumpkin into 
thin and narrow bits. Stew over a moderate fire in a little water, just 
enough to keep the mass from burning, until soft. Turn off the water, if 
any remains, and let the pumpkins steam over a slow fire about ten minutes. 
When sufficiently cooled, strain through a sieve. Sweeten the pumpkins 
with sugar and a little molasses. The sugar and eggs should be beaten 
together. The flavoring requires ginger, the grated rind of lemon or nut¬ 
meg, and salt. To one quart of pumpkin add one quart of milk and four 
eggs for ordinary richness. Heat the pumpkin scalding hot before putting 
it upon the crust to bake, otherwise the crust will be soaked. Bake in a 
very hot oven. 

PIE —Resurrection.— Mince the cold meat finely, put into a stewpan 
with a small piece of butter, some stock, a dessert-spoonful of flour, pep¬ 
per, s'alt, and the juice of a lemon; stir all over the fire till thoroughly hot 
through. Line a soup-plate with pastry, put in the mixture, cover with 
pastry, and bake. It is best eaten hot, but is also very good cold. 

PIE— Rhubarb. —Take the rhubarb and string it, cut it in small pieces, 
line your deep dish, put in your rhubarb with every layer covered well 
with sugar and a little grated cinnamon, bake it till the rhubarb looks well 
■cooked; this pie can be covered with a crust if you wish. 

PIE— Squash. —Pare, take out the seeds, and stew the squash till very 
soft and dry. Strain or rub it through a sieve or colander. Mix this with 


394 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


good sweet milk till it is as thick as batter; sweeten it with sugar. Allow 
five eggs to a quart of milk, beat the eggs well, add them to the squash, 
and season with rose-water, cinnamon, nutmeg, or whatever spices you like. 
Line a pie-plate with crust, fill and bake about an hour. 

PONE— Bachelor’s. —Three eggs well beaten; three half pints of 
milk ; a piece of butter the size of an egg; a tablespoonful of strong yeast, 
and as much corn-meal as will make a batter as thick as for muffins. 
Scald half the meal with half the milk. 

BAKING POWDER.—Six ounces of carbonate of soda, four ounces of 
tartaric acid, two ounces of sugar (very finely sifted,) one ounce of salt. 
All must be mixed very completely together, and after the flour has been 
made into dough (with water for bread, or milk for rolls,) add one tea¬ 
spoonful of the powder to every pound of flour, and mix thoroughly. If 
the powder is to be kept, it must be put into open-mouthed, dry bottles, 
corked and kept in a dry place. 

PUDDING—How to make quick. —Split a few crackers, lay the sur¬ 
face over with a few raisins, tie them closely in a cloth, and boil them fifteen 
minutes in milk and water. With a rich sauce it is elegant. 

PUDDING— Apple. —Peel and core six very large apples, stew them in 
six tablespoonfuls of water, with the rind of a lemon; when soft beat them 
to a pulp, add six ounces of good brown sugar, six well-beaten eggs, a pint 
of rich cream, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice ; line a dish with a puff 
paste, and when baked stick all over the top thin chips of candied citron 
and lemon-peel. 

PUDDING— Cup plum. —Take one cup each of raisins, currants, flour, 
bread-crumbs, suet, and sugar; stone and cut the raisins, wash and dry the 
currants, chop the suet, and mix all the above ingredients together; then 
add two ounces of cut candied peel and citron, a little mixed spice, salt, 
and ginger, say half a teaspoonful of each; stir in four well-beaten eggs, 
and milk enough to make the mixture so that the spoon will stand upright 
in it; tie it loosely in a cloth, or put it in a mold; plunge it into boiling 
water, and boil for three and a half hours. 

PUDDING— Birds-nest. —Pare about a dozen sweet apples, core them 
with an apple corer, or by driving through them the tube of a funnel, set 
them as close as they can stand in a deep pudding dish, fill the cores with 
sugar, pour in a little water, and bake soft. Make a custard of a scant quart 
of milk, five eggs, sugar, a little salt and three-quarters of a teaspoonful of 
vanilla. Fill up the apples again with sugar, pour over the custard and 
bake quickly. 

PUDDING— Baked bread. —Four ounces of fine bread-crumbs; two 
ounces of butter; two ounces of white sugar; three eggs; the rind of a 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


395 


lemon, one pint of cream, and half a pint of milk. Put the butter into a 
bowl with the sugar, and the grated rind of a lemon; add the bread-crumbs, 
the eggs, well beaten, and a few drops of almond flavor; then pour upon it 
the milk, boiling, then the cream; mix the whole together, and bake it in 
a buttered dish, in a moderate oven. 

PUDDING —Bancroft. —One tablespoonful melted butter, one cup 
sugar, one egg well beaten, one pint flour, two teaspoons cream tartar, one 
of soda, one cup sweet milk; beat well and bake thirty minutes. 

PUDDING —Bread-and-butter.— When dry bread is left, spread it with 
butter and pile up the slices in a pudding dish. Fill in with custard, and 
add a few raisins. Bake it enough to cook the custard. 

PUDDING— Boston. —Take six ounces of fine flour, six ounces of fresh 
suet shred fine, six ounces of raisins stoned, a cup of molasses, a cup of 
milk. Mix well, put into a basin, tie a cloth over, and boil from three to 
four hours. Serve with sweet liquid sauce. 

PUDDING —Beefsteak.— Make into a very smooth paste a pound of 
flour, six ounces of butter, and a little salt, moistened with three whole eggs, 
and cold water. Line with this a tin mold, medium size, and put in it a. 
pound and a half of tender steak cut up into small pieces, entirely free from 
skin, gristle, etc., and seasoned with half a teaspoonful of pepper and salt 
well mixed together. Pour in a very small cup of water, cover carefully 
with a crust, tie a floured cloth over, and boil gently three hours. Don’t 
allow it to stop. It can be made richer by adding a few large oysters to the 
steak. 

PUDDING— Cream.— Six tablespoonfuls flour, one quart of milk, three 
eggs, one teacupful of sugar and salt; take a little of the milk and stir with 
the flour, to make a batter, and boil the balance. When the milk boils add 
the batter, and when sufficiently cooked, take it off and stir in the eggs, 
beaten, sift a part of the sugar in the pudding dish, then pour in the pud¬ 
ding, and put the rest of the sugar on top; flavor to taste, and cover tightly 
till cold. 

PUDDING— Chancellor’s. —Boil one and a half pints new milk with 
sufficient loaf-sugar to sweeten it, the peel of a fresh lemon, cut thinly, a 
small quantity of cinnamon, mace and cloves. Boil all these ingredients as 
for custard. Beat up nine eggs, omitting the whites of four, pour the boiling 
milk, etc., into these, stirring continually during the operation, then strain the 
whole through a hair-sieve, and let it stand till cold, then take a good-sized 
pudding mold; butter it well, and line it with sponge-cake, cut into thin slices 
(it will probably require four), pour the custard into the mold and tie it 
close. It will take an hour and a half to boil. It is an improvement, after 
buttering the mold, and before placing the sponge-cake, to arrange some 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


39 6 

•stoned rasins, slices of candied peel and nutmeg. Serve hot with wine 
sauce. 

PUDDING— Cracker. —Pour over your soda crackers a pint of boiling 
milk. When cool, mash well. Beat two eggs, add a tablespoonful of 
dour. Mix all together, boil for an hour. Eat with sauce. 

PUDDING— Corn. —Grate the green corn from two dozen ears, then 
carefully scrape the cobs so as not to get the chaff off; put with the corn 
about a quart of cold milk, three eggs, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one 
teaspoonful of salt; if not sweet enough, add more sugar; if too thick, 
more milk—the consistency depends on the state of the corn. Pour into 
buttered plates and bake. A delicious dish for tea. 

PUDDING— Corn-starch. —Boil one quart of good milk, stir gradu¬ 
ally into it five tablespoonfuls of corn-starch, mixed with milk; add salt to 
taste, and two tablespoonfuls of loaf sugar, and stir until cooked; when 
cooled, add lemon or vanilla, and pour it into the molds. 

PUDDING— Exeter —Put in a proper-sized basin ten ounces of fine 
bread-crumbs, four ounces of sago, seven ounces of suet, chopped fine, 
six ounces of moist sugar, the peel of half a lemon grated, a quarter pint 
of rum, and four eggs; stir for a few minutes with a spoon; add three 
more eggs, four tablespoonfuls of clotted cream ; mix well; it is then ready 
to fill the mold. Butter the mold well, put in a handful of bread-crumbs, 
shake the mold well till the greater part sticks to the butter, then throw 
out the remainder, and have ready six penny sponge cakes, two ounces of 
ratafias, and half a pound of either raspberry or strawberry jam ; cover the 
bottom of the mold with a layer of ratafias, just cover them with a layer of 
the mixture, cut the spong-cake lengthwise, spread quickly each piece 
with some jam, put a layer in the mold, then a few ratafias, afterwards 
some of the mixture, and so on, until the mold is full, taking care that a 
layer of the mixture is on the top of the pudding. It will take forty 
minutes baking. 

Another.— Put in a small stewpan three tablespoonfuls of currant jelly 
and two glasses of sherry; warm on the fire, and pour over the pudding 
cloth, and serve hot. 

PUDDING— Baked flour. —Boil one quart of milk; when entirely 
cold, add it gradually to eight tablespoonfuls of flour, eight eggs, yolks and 
whites beaten separately, a little salt. Bake one hour. 

PUDDING— Hotel. —Heat one quart of milk to a boiling heat; add 
one-quarter of a cup of butter ; then stir in six ounces of Indian meal, two 
eggs well beaten, three-quarters of a cup of molasses, one-quarter table¬ 
spoonful of cinnamon or ginger. Bake one hour. To be eaten with sauce 
of butter and sugar. 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


397 


PUDDING —Indian huckleberry. —Stir into a quart of boiling milk 
enough meal to make a moderate stiff batter. Add a couple of beaten 
eggs, a little salt, a small cup of finely-chopped suet, a little molasses, and 
a quart of huckleberries. Boil two hours in a bag, leaving room to swell. 
Serve with rich liquid sauce. 

PUDDING —Lemon. —Half pound of bread-crumbs, the rind of two 
large lemons, grated, one cup of sifted white sugar, two eggs, a pint of 
milk ; mix well together, then add the juice of the lemon gradually ; pour 
into a buttered basin, and boil one hour; serve with liquid sauce. 

PUDDING —Plum. —One ounce of candied lemon-peel, one ounce of 
orange-peel, six ounces of raisins, six ounces of currants, six ounces of 
best beef suet, six ounces of sugar, six ounces of flour, two eggs, a pint of 
milk, a small nutmeg, and a teaspoonful of salt. Stone the raisins, pick, 
wash and dry the currants, chop the suet extremely fine; put them, with 
the lemon and orange-peel finely sliced, all together in your large dish for 
mixing ; add the flour and sugar, and grate the nutmeg over all; then heat 
up your eggs and stir the milk gently into them. With this liquid wet all 
the other ingredients; flour well a strong pudding-cloth, and when you have 
thoroughly mixed your pudding materials, so that all is perfectly blended, 
and taking care not to make them too wet, or to leave them too dry, put 
your pudding into the cloth, tie it tightly, and boil in a large pot five or six 
hours, taking care that the water boils ere the pudding is put in, and that it 
is kept on a quick boil during the whole time of cooking, and also that the 
pot is replenished with boiling water, as it frequently requires to be. 

PUDDING— Suet. —One cup chopped suet, one cup brown sugar, one 
cup molasses, one cup sweet milk, one cup each of rasins and English cur¬ 
rants, one teaspoonful each of cinnamon, cloves, soda and salt, one small 
nutmeg, five cups flour; steam hard three hours. Serve with foam sauce, 
flavored with anything you wish. One-half of this recipe is enough for 
five persons. Warming over, by steaming, improves it, as it also does the 
bread. 

PUDDINGS— Queen of. —One pint of bread-crumbs, pounded, one 
quart of milk, yolks of four eggs, half cup of sugar, and the grated rind of 
one lemon. For flavoring, take four tablespoonfuls of white sugar, whites 
of four eggs, and the juice of one lemon. 

ROLLS— Breakfast. —One quart of flour, one pint milk, tablespoon 
butter, one tablespoon yeast. This is enough for a small family. 

ROLLS— Cranberry. —Stew a quart of cranberries in just water enough 
to keep them from burning. Make very sweet, strain and cool. Make a 
paste, and when the cranberry is cold spread it on the paste about an inch 
thick. Roll it, tie it close in a flannel cloth, boil two hours and serve with 


398 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


a sweet sauce. Stewed apples or other fruit may be used in the same way. 

ROLLS— Graham, raised. —One cup of water, one tablespoonful lard 
or butter, a little salt, half cup yeast, half cup flour, and Graham flour to 
make a stiff batter. Let it rise over night, and in the morning add one 
egg, three tablespoonfuls molasses, half teaspoon soda, and one-third cup 
Indian meal. Beat thoroughly, put in the roll-pans to rise, and bake in 
quick oven. 

MUSH— Graham. —Sift meal slowly into boiling, salted water, stirring 
briskly until as thick as can be stirred with one hand. Serve with milk, or 
cream and sugar, or butter, or syrup. 

RUSKS.—Three-fourths of a pound of sugar, one-half pound of butter, 
-one pint of sweet milk, five eggs, three and a half pounds of flour. Beat 
the eggs very light; put milk, sugar and butter together over the fire till 
the butter is melted; when cooled add half pint of yeast, then the eggs 
and flour. Mix quickly and set to rise. Mold by hand in round cakes, 
about half an inch in thickness. The cakes should be placed in the pan in 
a double layer, one cake on top of another. 

GINGER SNAPS.—Mix four ounces of lard and four of butter, melted, 
with four ounces of brown sugar, a pint of molasses, two spoonfuls of gin¬ 
ger, and a quart of flour; strain in two teaspoonfuls of saleratus dissolved 
in a wine-glass of milk, adding sufficient flour for rolling out thin. Cut into 
small cakes, and bake in a slow oven. 

SNOWBALLS.—Beat the whites of six eggs to a froth, sweeten them to 
your taste, and flavor them with rose-water. Drop them into a pot of boil¬ 
ing water, in tablespoonfuls, for a minute or two to harden them. Make a 
cream of milk, eggs and sugar to float them in. 

SYLLABUS— Whip. —Mix a glass of brandy and half a pint of white 
wine with a pint of well-whipped cream, which sweeten with sifted loaf- 
sugar, and grate in lemon peel and nutmeg; serve in glasses, and set some 
•of the whip on each. 

TONGUE SANDWICHES.—Boil a good-sized smoked tongue four or 
five hours, not letting the water boil hard, but keep it on a simmer. Leave 
it in the pot until the water is cold; then skin it, and when ready to make 
the sandwiches, cut it as thin as wafers, using a sharp, thin-bladed knife. 
Rub a small quantity of mustard into a large slice of sweet butter, and cut 
•slices of bread as thin as they can be shaved. Spread them with the pre¬ 
pared butter, and lay the slices of tongue between two slices of bread; then 
cut the slices in halves. 

PUDDING— Rowley-powley.— Make a paste of one pint of white 
potatoes, strained and mashed; double the quantity of sifted flour, a tum¬ 
blerful of butter, wet with sour milk, into which stir enough soda to sweeten 


COOKING AND BAKING. 


399 

it. Roll it out a quarter of an inch thick, spread it with stewed cranber¬ 
ries, or any kind of preserved fruit, jelly or marmalade. Roll carefully, tie 
in a cloth and boil for two hours. 

PUDDING— Rice, baked or boiled. —Wash in cold water and pick 
very clean six ounces of rice; boil it in one quart of milk, with a bit of 
cinnamon, very gently, till it is quite tender; it will take about an hour; be 
careful to stir it often. Take it from the fire, and pick out the cinnamon, 
and stir in a teacupful of sugar, half a cup of butter, three eggs well beaten, 
a little powdered nutmeg ; stir it till it is quite smooth. You can line a 
a pie-dish with puff paste, or bake it in a buttered dish, which is better; 
three-quarters of an hour will bake it. 

If you wish it more like custard, add one more egg and half a pint of 
milk. 

If you boil it you can add whatever fruit you like; three ounces of cur¬ 
rants, or rasins, or apples minced fine; it will take an hour to boil. 

Serve with wine sauce or butter and sugar. 

PUDDING— Sago. —Wash half a pound of sago in three or four waters; 
put it into one quart of milk. Boil these together until thick, stirring it 
carefully. Stir in, when hot, one-half pound of butter. When cold, add 
eight eggs, beaten well; four spoonfuls of wine and two of rose-water. 
Sweeten to your taste. Bake this in paste or not, as you like. 

PUDDING— Tapioca. —Four tablespoonfuls of tapioca, one quart of 
milk, four eggs, saving out two of the whites for frosting; one tablespoon¬ 
ful of sugar; soak the tapioca over night, for several hours, in a little 
water; boil the milk and turn over the tapioca ; and when it is blood-warm 
add the sugar and eggs well beaten; flavor the pudding with lemon or 
rose-water; bake it about an hour, and after it has cooled a little, add the 
two whites of the eggs, and one-half pound of white sugar, beaten together 
for frosting. This answers as sauce for the pudding, and looks quite orna¬ 
mental. 

TART— Apple. —Take some good baking apples, pare, core and cut 
them into small pieces; place them in a dish lined with puff paste, strew 
over pounded sugar, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, cloves, and lemon-peel, 
chopped small; then add a layer of apples, then spice, and so on till the 
dish is full; pour a glass and a half of white wine over the whole, cover 
with puff paste, and bake it. When done, raise the crust, stir in two ounces 
of fresh butter, and two eggs well beaten, replace the crust, and serve 
either hot or cold. 

TART— Grape. —Take a tart dish, line the bottom and sides with a 
paste, and bake it. If the dish has been well greased, the crust will turn 
out easily, of the same form. As this walled crust is simply intended to 


400 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


hold and serve up the fruit, it need only be plain. Now make a syrup of 
half a pint of water and three-quarters of a pound of white sugar; bring 
it to a boil; have the grapes ready picked from the stalks and washed ; 
then put them into the hot syrup for half a minute; allow all to cool in a 
bowl. When wanted, put the syrup and grapes into the crust-wall and 
serve. 

TART— Currant. —Line a dish with puff paste, strew powdered sugar 
over the botton of it, then put in alternate layers of currants carefully pick¬ 
ed, and sugar, till the dish is full, then cover and bake it. The addition of 
raspberries or mulberries to currant tart is a great improvement. 

TART— Strawberry. —Put into a basin two quarts of the best scarlet 
strawberries, picked, add half a pint of cold clarified sugar, the same 
quantity of Maderia with the juice of two lemons; mix all well without 
breaking the strawberries, and put them into a puff paste previously baked ; 
keep them very cool. 

TART— Quince. —Take a few preserved quinces, put an equal weight 
of syrup, made with sugar and water and preserve, into a preserving pan; 
boil, skim, then put in the fruit; when somewhat clear, place the quinces 
in a tart-dish with puff paste as usual. Cover, bake it, and, when done, 
lift the top gently, put in the syrup, ice it, and serve. 

TARTLETS— Hazelnuts. —Pound three ounces of hazelnuts well with 
a little water, and add three ounces of fine white sugar, and a little more 
water, and stir well together, whip the whites of three eggs to a stiff snow, 
and stir them into the nuts, with a tablespoonful of flour. There must pre¬ 
viously be prepared little tins lined with “cake paste.” Fill these with 
the mixture, and sprinkle with sugar, bake slowly, and ice with vanilla very 
carefully. 

TARTLETS— Linz. —Beat one pound of butter to a froth, and add half 
a pound of sugar; three-quarters of a pound of pounded almonds ; half a 
lemon, grated; one spoonful of powdered cinnamon ; one pound of flour; 
stir all well together. Make round balls and press them into little round 
tins. Make a round hole in the middle, and fill with currant jam; then 
make a little roll of the dough, about the size of a thick cord, and put it on 
the top of the jam in the form of a coil; spread egg on the top and bake 
very quickly. 

TRIFLE.—Place at the bottom of the trifle-dish a layer of macaroons 
and ratafiacakes, and pour over them as much sweet wine as they will 
absorb; squeeze the juice of a lemon, and add to it a pint of cream, not 
too thick; sweeten the cream with sugar rubbed on the rind; add a little 
brandy; whisk the mixture, and, as the froth rises, lay it on a sieve to 
drain, and if it is too thick, add to it a little water. When sufficient has 


V 


COOKING AND BAKING. 4OI 

been drained for the purpose, make a custard with the remaining cream, 
and that which has drained from the froth; put it on a very slow fire, with 
two laurel leaves, and, when nearly boiling, take it off, and add the yolks 
of four eggs and the whites of two—the number necessary for a pint of 
custard—put it again on the fire, stirring slowly one way, till it thickens, 
but taking care not to allow it to come to a boil; cover the macaroons 
with raspberry or other jam, and pour on the custard, and when the cus¬ 
tard is quite cold, put on the froth, sprinkling harlequin comforts on the 
top, and garnishing with different colored sweetmeats. 

WAFFLES— Raised.— To make nice waffles, take one quart of wheat 
flour, and stir into it sufficient lukewarm milk to make a thick batter. Add 
a tablespoonful of melted butter, a teaspoonful of salt, half a cup of yeast, 
and two eggs, well beaten. Stir it altogether, and let it stand in a warm 
place till light (if the waffles are for tea, they should be made soon after 
breakfast.) Bake in waffle-irons well greased, and very hot. Turn the 
irons over once while baking, that the waffles may be browned on both 
sides. Bake until a nice browm—about five minutes. 

WHEY —Lemon, to make.— Pour into boiling milk as much lemon juice 
as will make a small quantity quite clear; dilute with hot water to an 
agreeable smart acid, and put in a bit or two of sugar. This is less heat¬ 
ing than if made of wine, and, if only to excite perspiration, answers 
as well. 

YEAST— Mode of making. —The following mode, which is found very 
convenient in practice, was stated to us by a notable housewife. One quart 
of hops is boiled about three hours with about seven gallons of water ; after 
that the resulting liquid is passed through a colander on three quarts of 
Indian meal, or so much that the mixture will be like batter. Half a tea¬ 
cup of salt is added, and when cooled to new milk warmth, half a pint of 
yeast. After stirring well, it stands 15 or 20 hours, and Indian meal added 
till of the consistency of dough, when cakes, three inches in diameter and 
half an inch thick, are made from it, and dried on a board by the fire •> 
much heat will destroy the yeast, and if not dried in two or three days, fer¬ 
mentation will proceed so far as to destroy it. These cakes will be good 
for three months ; one of them soaked half an hour in warm, not hot water, 
will be enough for a large loaf. 

The yeast prepared by the Hungarians is similar, and will keep, it is said, 
a whole year. During the summer season, they boil a quantity of wheat 
bran and hops in water; the decoction is not long in fermenting, and when 
this has taken place, they throw in a sufficient portion of bran to form the 
whole into a thick paste, which they work into balls and dry by a slow 
heat. 


25 


402 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


YEAST— Potato and yeast cakes. —A correspondent of the Country 
Gentleman says:—“ My wife makes a potato yeast which she considers 
superior to any other kind of yeast she has ever used, as it makes better 
bread, and is more convenient to use. It is made in the following manner: 
Take ten potatoes of large size, pare,wash and boil them; when done 
mash them fine, and pour on them one quart of boiling water, and stir in 
one coffee cup of dry sugar. After standing a few minutes, pour on a gill 
less than a quart of boiling water; when it is lukewarm add one pint of 
the same kind of yeast if you have it, or of good hop yeast, to raise it- 
Put it in a stone jar and cover it up tight to ferment, and set it in a warm 
place till the potato rises on the top, and light foaming spots burst from the 
surface; then put the yeast in a stone jug and cork it tight. It will be 
necessary to tie the cork in and keep it tied, to prevent it being thrown out. 
After the yeast is put up it should be kept in a cool place; when wanted 
for use, open the jug and stir up the yeast. One-half of a teacupful of it 
will make a large loaf of bread. In warm weather the yeast is better to 
make only one-half of the above quantity at a time, if but little used.” 

We find the following directions for making yeast cakes in the papers: 
Scald some flour with strong hop tea; when cool enough to bear your 
finger in it, set it to rise with good lively yeast; set at noon it ought to be 
light enough in the morning ; stir in as much Indian meal as is required to 
mould it into a lump; cut it into thin slices on a board or tea-waiter, with 
a cloth spread over it, then set it in the wind to dry. It should be made in 
dry weather, or it may sour. Two-thirds of a teacupful will make a bak¬ 
ing for an ordinary family. Soak fifteen minutes. 

YEAST—To preserve. —Ordinary beer yeast may be kept fresh and fit 
for use for several months ; by placing it in a close canvass bag, and gently 
squeezing out the moisture in a screw press, the remaining matter becomes 
as stiff as clay, in which state it must be preserved in close vessels. 

YEAST— Milk. —One pint of new milk, one teaspoonful of fine salt, 
and a large spoonful of flour; stir these well together, set the mixture by the 
fire, and keep it just luke-warm ; it will be fit for use in an hour. Twice 
the quantity of common yeast is necessary ; it will not keep long. Bread 
made of this yeast dries very soon ; but in summer it is sometimes con¬ 
venient to make this kind when yeast is needed suddenly. Yeast should 
not be kept in a tin vessel. If you find the old yeast sour, and have not 
time to prepare new, put in saleratus, a teaspoonful to a pint of yeast. 


USEFUL RECIPES— Kisses.— Beat with a wire whisk the whites of 
eight eggs to a stiff, solid froth, then stir gently in by degrees one pound of 



USEFUL RECIPES. 


403 


the finest powdered sugar. If you desire to have them flavored add a few 
drops of lemon oil, or a teaspoonful of any extract you may fancy. Lay the 
mass out, in shape of small half-eggs, with a dessert spoon, on sheets of white 
paper, which must be laid on boards at least one inch thick—this is done 
in order that the kisses may receive no bottom heat. After they are so laid 
out, sieve fine sugar over the top, and then bake them in a moderate oven; 
a few minutes after they are taken from the oven remove them from the 
papers with a thin pallet knife, and join two of them together, thus forming 
the shape of a small egg. This mass may be laid out on papers as above 
described, by the aid of a canvass bag, fitted with a tin nozzle, into rings, 
shells, fingers, rosettes, etc., and with chopped almonds, filberts, or pista¬ 
chio-nuts strewn over the tops, and then baked of a very light color. 

Cream cake. —Put one and a half pints of water and a quarter pound 
of butter in a round-bottomed pan, place it upon the fire, and when it boils 
stir quickly in one pound of sifted flour, and stir it vigorously with a wooden 
spatula; now remove it from the fire, and beat in, one at a time, sufficient 
eggs to form a rather soft, smooth, sleek paste—eight or ten will be enough. 
With a spoon, lay out this mass in the form of round cakes or lumps, on 
greased baking tins, some distance apart, as they expand considerably. 
Bake in a hot oven. When cold, split them open at the side, and fill with a 
lemon or vanilla custard cream. 

The Custard : Beat six eggs with half a pound pulverized sugar; add 
one pint of milk; flavor with vanilla extract; place it upon the fire and stir 
constantly until it thickens; then remove, and when cold fill your puffs. 

Apples a la turque. —Pare and core a dozen good apples, put them 
into a basin with sortie thin syrup and the yellow rind of a lemon; cover 
them closely and simmer them gently until they are soft and clear. Take 
them out and lay them on a dish with wet white paper over them; this will 
prevent them from discoloring. Now cover a dish with puff paste; prick 
the bottom and bake it. When the paste is done, fill the holes made by 
the removal of the cores in the apples with raspberry jam, and arrange them 
on the paste in the shape of a cone. Beat the whites of six eggs to a stiff 
snow, and add to them six ounces of fine white sugar. Mix this gently in, 
then pile this meringue mass upon the apples. Sift some fine white sugar 
over it and set it in the mouth of the oven until baked a light brown color. 

Mead or metheglin. —1. Take to each gallon of water three pounds of 
strained honey, boil these gently together for about one hour, add to it, 
while boiling, one half ounce of good sound hops, skim carefully, and drain 
the skimmings through a hair-sieve, returning what runs through; remove 
from the fire, and when the liquid is lukewarm stir into it a half pint of good 
staunch yeast; this quantity will serve for nine gallons of mead. Now, put 


404 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


it into your cask and let it work over, filling it up until fermentation sub¬ 
sides. Paste strong paper over the bung-hole. This mead may be flav¬ 
ored with spices while boiling. 

Mead is a very wholesome and pleasant beverage, very grateful in sum¬ 
mer, and but little inferior to some of the white wines, and will keep for a 
very long time. 

2. Take ten gallons of water, two gallons of honey, a handful of dried 
ginger root, and two lemons cut in slices, mix all together, and boil for half 
an hour, carefully skimming it all the time, and during the boiling add two 
ounces of hops; remove from the fire, and when the liquid is lukewarm add 
a strong yeast, and then cask, and allow it to work. In about three weeks 
after working off it will be ready for use. 

Bread without yeast, or other ferment, is beyond my ken, unless it be 
in the form of biscuits or crackers. 

These are compounded of flour, water or milk, and butter or lard. The 
unleavened bread of the Israelites is made of a dough composed simply of 
flour and water, rolled out thin and baked. 

Doughnuts.— Make one pint of milk warm, melt in it a quarter of a 
pound of butter, four well-beaten eggs, and one pound of sugar. Stir the 
sugar into the eggs, grate in half a nutmeg, add half a gill of yeast, mix 
all together, and thicken it into a soft dough with sifted flour; now roll the 
dough, and form or cut out your doughnuts, place them on a floured board, 
and put them in a warm situation to rise. When they are light, fry them in 
boiling lard to a light brown color, drain them in a colander, and sift fine 
white sugar over them. 

Crumpets. —Make two pounds of sifted flour into a dough, with warm 
milk and water, adding a little salt, three eggs well-beaten, and three table¬ 
spoonfuls of yeast; mix all well together, and reduce it with warm milk to 
the consistence of this batter. Set it in a warm situation to rise, and when 
sufficiently light pour it into buttered pans or tins, and bake slowly to a 
light brown color. 

Glair of eggs is a brilliant glaze for pastry or cake; its preparation is 
simple. Whisk the whites of eggs to a froth, and let them stand for twenty- 
four hours, and then strain them through a muslin cloth. 

Ratafia de framboises.— Bruised raspberries, eight pounds; proof 
spirit, two quarts; white sugar, one pound; mix and infuse in a corked 
demijohn for a week, occasionally shaking it, after which filter and bottle. 

Ratafia de Cerises. —Select for this liquor a dark, rich, juicy cherry, of 
which take eight pounds, mash and bruise the kernels, cover all with one 
gallon proof spirit, and add two pounds white sugar dissolved in one quart 
of water. Put all into a close vessel, and digest for ten days, after which 
filter and bottle. 


USEFUL RECIPES. 


405 


To color sugar sand.— Take a pound of white pulverized sugar, sift 
this in a lawn sieve in order to take out the finer portions. Put the coarser 
grains into a preserving pan, and gently warm it over the fire, stirring con¬ 
tinually with the hand; pour in a 'Sufficient vegetable liquid color to give 
the desired tint, and continue to work it about the pan until dry. 

Raspberry and currant paste.— Take any desired quantity of red cur¬ 
rants and raspberries in equal proportions, mash them together in a pre¬ 
serving pan, and boil them for ten minutes, stirring them with a wooden 
spatula; remove them from the fire, and when cool enough rub and press 
them through a hair sieve into a clean pan, and for every pound of pulp 
add one pound of pulverized white sugar; set this over a brisk fire, stirring 
constantly until the paste is sufficiently evaported to show the bottom of 
the pan as you draw your spatula across it; then remove it from the fire, 
and while it is yet warm lay out the paste in drops about the size of half 
dollars on sheets of white paper, laid upon coffers or sheets of tin. They 
should then be placed in the drying closet, and allowed to remain for sev¬ 
eral days or until they are dry. They may now be laid away in closed 
boxes, kept in a dry place, until wanted for use. This is a delicious paste, 
and when removed from the papers, and two of them interlarded with a 
fondant cream, and crystalized, makes a most beautiful and desirable win¬ 
ter bonbon. 

To make skeleton leaves. —Place the leaves in a little rain water, to 
which a trace of yeast has been added. Allow the fermentation to proceed 
until the membranous portion becomes soft and easily washed away in a 
stream of water. They are bleached by dipping for a few minutes in a 
strong aqueous solution of sulphurous acid gas, or exposing them (while 
moist) in a box filled with the vapor of burning sulphur. 

To preserve autumn leaves. —Spread the fresh leaves and press them 
in a suitable dish, with alternate layers of fine sand, which is thoroughly 
dry and as hot as the hand can bear. When the sand has cooled they may 
be removed, smoothed under a hot iron, dipped for a moment in clear 
French spirit varnish, and allowed to dry in the air. By many melted wax 
or parafine is preferred to the varnish. These latter must not be too hot. 

Soluble blue. —Mix 1 pound of dry Prussian blue with a little hot water 
to form a paste, triturate this with about ij ounces of potassium ferrocy- 
anide (yellow Prussiate,) and allow it to dry. 

Paste for scrap books. —Rice starch, 1 ounce; gelatin, 3 drachms ; 
water pint; heat, with constant stirring, until the milky liquid becomes 
thick and glassy, when the paste is ready. Keep the paste in a tight bottle 
with a few drops of clove oil. 

To render cloth fire-proof.— Steep the fabric in almost any saline 


40 6 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


solution, such as borax, alum, sal-ammoniac, etc. The addition of about 
one ounce of alum or sal-ammoniac to the last water used to rinse a lady’s 
dress, or set of bed furniture; or the addition of a less quantity to the starch 
used to stiffen them, renders them uninflammable, or at least so little com¬ 
bustible that they will not readily take fire, and if kindled, will not burst 
into flame. 

Waterproofing cloth.— Cloth coated with linseed oil to which a little 
wax and litharge have been added, will be waterproof. 

To render fabrics waterproof.— Saturate the goods with a strong hot 
aqueous solution of good resin soap, and then wring, transfer, and digest 
them in a second bath of alum or aluminum sulphate or acetate, dissolved 
in hot water. Rinse and dry thoroughly at a temperature of about 80 de¬ 
grees Fah. Thus treated the fibers do not readily absorb water, but the 
goods are not absolutely waterproof. 

Moth and roach exterminator.— i. Benzine is said to be more effect¬ 
ive than anything else for exterminating moths, roaches, etc. 2. A little 
alum or borax solution in hot water injected into the cracks and applied 
by a cloth to the wood work in the vicinity of these hiding places is usu¬ 
ally effectual. 

To color butter.— Use a little annatto; if pure it is not injurious. 

To remove stains from marble.— Cover the soiled part with a paste of 
quicklime, moistened with a strong aqueous solution of sal-soda for several 
hours; then remove the paste, wash the parts thoroughly, and polish if 
necessary. 

To relieve casks from mustiness. —Burn a little sulphur in the empty 
casks, bung, and let them stand for a day. 

Sticky fly paper.— Boiled linseed oil and resin; melt and add honey. 
Soak the paper in a strong solution of alum and then dry before applying 
the above. 

How to soften hard water.— Rain water contains a small amount of 
carbonic-acid gas, and when such water runs over limestone it dissolves 
and holds a small quantity of carbonate of lime, and becomes what we 
call “hard water.” To convert it into soft water we must get rid of this 
carbonate of lime; and this may be done, in cisterns or reservoirs, by 
pouring in lime water, which by combining with the excess of carbonic 
acid causes all the lime to precipitate in the form of an insoluble carbon¬ 
ate, which falls to the bottom. 

Welding horn.— Pieces of horn may be joined by heating the edges 
until they are quite soft, and pressing them together until they are cold. 

TO STAIN HORN.— Red —Soak in very dilute nitric acid for a few 
minutes, and apply a strong infusion of cochineal in aqua amonia. 


USEFUL RECIPES. 4OJ 

Green. —Steep in a solution of 2 parts of verdigris and 1 of sal am¬ 
moniac. 

Blue. —Stain green, and then steep for a short time in a weak solution 
of sulphate of indigo, containing a little cream of tartar. 

Yellow. —Steep them in a solution of lead acetate, and, then, after dry¬ 
ing, in a solution of bichromate of potash. 

Purple. —Use a strong aqueous solution of gold chloride. 

Black. —Use nitrate of silver solution and expose to sunlight. 

Brown. —Immerse in aqueous solution of potassium ferro cyanide dry, 
and treat with a hot dilute solution of copper sulphate. 

Walnut stain. —Water, one quart; sal soda, one-half ounce ; Vandyke 
brown, two and one-half ounces; potassium bichromate, one-quarter to 
one-half ounce; boil for ten minutes, replacing water lost by evaporation. 
Use hot and allow the work to dry thoroughly before oiling or varnishing. 

DYEING RECIPES— Yellow cannelle. —For 100 pounds bleached 
cotton. Ten pounds catechu, four pounds blue vitriol, half pound bichro¬ 
mate. Pass first through the catechu, and wring; then pass through the 
bichromate, and wash. Repeat the passes, and wash. Finish with ten 
pounds quercitron bark. 

Carmelite olive. —For 100 pounds bleached cotton. Fifteen pounds 
catechu, four pounds blue vitriol, one pound bichromate. Work same as 
for yellow cannelle, and finish with fifteen pounds quercitron and one tumb¬ 
ler of pyrolignite of iron. 

Tete de negre. —For 100 pounds bleached cotton. Five pounds cate¬ 
chu, two pounds alum, one pound blue vitriol, two pounds bichromate. 
Work as in yellow cannelle. Finish with forty pounds red sanders and one 
tumbler of pyrolignite of iron for each twenty-five pounds cotton. 

Dark cannelle. —For 100 pounds bleached cotton. Fifteen pounds 
catechu, six pounds blue vitriol, one pound bichromate. Work as in yel¬ 
low cannelle, and finish in a boiling bath of four pounds sal-soda. 

Gold yellow on linen (11 pounds.)—Steep for three hours in a boiling 
beck of seventeen and a quarter ounces tannin, and dye in a fresh cold beck 
with about three and a half ounces aniline orange, otherwise known as 
phosphine. 

Chrome orange on linen ( i i pounds.)—Boil up three and a quarter 
pounds sugar of lead in water, with an equal weight of litharge, till the sedi¬ 
ment is white. Let settle and steep the yam in the clear hot liquid for an 
hour; take out and take through a cold beck made up of seventeen and a 
quarter ounce’s lime. Rinse slightly, and work in a cold beck of seventeen 
and a quarter ounces chromate of potash, and the same weight of sulphuric 
acid, for a quarter of an hour. Redden in a boiling beck with eight and 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


408 

three-quarters ounces lime, working for three minutes, and rinsing. If a 
redder shade is required, top in a fresh cold water, with one-eighth ounce 
magenta. 

Rose on linen (ii pounds.)—Work in a boiling hot beck of seven 
ounces tannin and three and a half ounces curd soap ; add to the water the 
solution of three and a half ounces tin crystals, and dye with one-third to 
three-quarter ounce saffranine at no degrees Fahr. 

Claret on cotton yarns (ii pounds.)—Makeup a beck with seven¬ 
teen and a quarter ounces prepared catechu, and work the prepared yarn in 
it for one hour. Wring, and steep for half an hour in a hot beck of six and 
a quarter ounces chromate of potash ; take through cold water, and work 
for thirty minutes in a beck of three and a quarter pounds sumac at 190 de¬ 
grees Fahr. Then dye in a cold beck with one and three-quarters ounces 
magenta; take out, add to the beck eight and three-quarters ounces alum 
and the decoction of two and a quarter pounds logwood. Enter again, 
work in the cold beck; lift, and add, according to shade, from one-third to 
one and three-fourths ounces chromate of potash; re-enter, and work. The 
color is now complete. 

Fast black on woolen yarn (ii pounds.)—Boil for one hour with 
four and a half ounces chromate of potash, and the same weight of pre¬ 
pared tartar, finely ground ; rinse immediately, and let cool in the liquor, 
and dye with six and a half pounds logwood, adding a little fustic, accord¬ 
ing to shade, and seven ounces logwood. Boil for three quarters of an 
hour. After dyeing, drain, and take the yarns four times through the pre¬ 
pared beck; rinse, and then take three times through an old soda beck. 
Rinse when the dyeing is complete. 

Billiard green on cloth (no pounds.)—Dissolve in water sixteen 
pounds and six ounces alum, boil in it twenty-two pounds fustic, and add 
five pounds and seven ounces extract of indigo. 

The color most in favor at the present time is caroubier , which seems to 
combine the red-cardinal and yellow-brown. It is easily obtained on wool 
in a bath of fuchsine, with the addition of a very small quantity of aniline 
maroon, or by a mixture of orchil with red wood, and a little fustic added, 
it is easy to produce this shade. 

Eosine is now being largely substituted for cochineal in the dyeing of 
wool. A beautiful bright scarlet may be obtained by using the following: 
To ten pounds of wool, three ounces of eosine and eight ounces of alum. 


WEEDS AND HOW TO DESTROY THEM. 



WILD MUSTARD OR CHARLOCK is an annual, and one that is 
very troublesome. Although each plant dies every year, yet the seeds re¬ 
tain their vitality a long time, and the consequences are that it is a difficult 
matter to extirpate it. A system of rotation, in which spring sown crops 
are not frequent, and weeding out by hand as soon as the yellow blossoms 
appear in the spring, are the best remedies. 

FALSE-FLAX, an annual weed, introduced 
with flax seed, a very common 
weed with that crop. The 
remedy is to sow clean seed, and 
alternate flax with other crops. 

COCKLE, OR WHEAT 
COCKLE, is an annual, but be¬ 
comes a biennial if sown late in 
the season. The flour will show 
its effect by being of a dark 
color. To expel it, sow only 
clean seed, pull up the small 
plants early in the spring, and 
again, if any have escaped or been overlook¬ 
ed, when in flower early in summer. 

CHICKWEED.—Although an annual, its extreme hardiness causes it to 
grow and flower during winter. On damp soils it is often 
very troublesome. Underdraining ard frequent cultivation 
will exterminate it. Every one is familiar with this trouble¬ 
some weed. 

PURSLANE.—An annual weed, spreading over the 
surface, and in summer, especi¬ 
ally in gardens, very troublesome, 
on account of its extreme ten¬ 
acity of life, after the stem is cut 
off. Removing from the land, or burying is 
advisable after passing the hoe over the surface. 

RAG WEED OR BITTER WEED is annual Fig- 422, Purslane. 

409 


Fig. 419- 

False Flax. 



Fig. 420.—Cockle or wheat 
Cockle. 



Fig. 421. 
Chickweed. 





brand’s cyclopedia. 



410 

and finds its way into cultivated fields. Clean culture and rotation of crops 
are the best remedies we know of. This is one of the most troublesome 
weeds a farmer has to contend with, and every effort should be made to 
extirpate the same. 

CLOT-BUR OR COCKLE-BUR is an annual, not a formidable weed, 
but yet one that frequently is quite troublesome—the worst 
feature being the burs adhering to the fleeces of sheep. It 
is easily exterminated by cultivation. The thorny clot-bur 
is afar worse plant, and can be found extensively in the 
Southern States, but the same means will exterminate it. 

BUR-MARIGOLD, STICK-TIGHT, OR SPANISH 
NEEDLES.—This is not a formidable weed, and only can 
be found on neglected soil. It is strictly an annual. Good 
cultivation will extirpate them. 

MAY WEED is an annual, usually enduring the winter, 
Fig. 424.—Clot- growing often abundantly along road-sides, and having a 
Bur or Cockle-Bur. disagreeable odor. As it rarely gets possession of culti¬ 
vated fields, it cannot be termed a pest. 

MULLEIN.—A well-known biennial weed, very common in the pastures 
of slovenly farmers, along the borders of roads, etc. The plants are easily 
destroyed by cutting off with a hoe, or by pulling them up the second year 
when the soil is softened by heavy rains. 

RED ROOT— Pigeon weed, cromwell, stone weed, or steinkraut, 
the latter by many called “ stink root.” This is a very troublesome weed 
to the farmer, in fact we might easily say, that it is one of the worst that he 
has to contend with. It is an annual, but assumes the character of a biennial, 
and spreading only by seed, it is more difficult to exterminate than even 
the Canada thistle. It is the great enemy of the wheat crop, and if once 
it gets possession of the field, it will nearly run out the 
grain. A good plan for extirpating this troublesome 
weed is as follows : For the first wheat crop, plow the 
ground very deep, at least eight inches. This will 
throw the seed down beyond the reach of vegetating, 
and the wheat may be sown on the inverted surface, and 
escape one year. In the fall plow as deep as for the 
wheat, which will throw the seed again to the surface- 
Harrow well, and the seed will germinate. The next 
spring turn the weeds under with a gang plow, or cut 
them to pieces with a large steel-tooth cultivator, and 
Fig. 425. Red Root, sow oats, barley, spring wheat or peas, the latter is best 
By way of rotation plow or harrow again in the fall, to start another crop 



WEEDS AND HOW TO DESTROY. 


411 



of weeds, and plant corn, cultivating it thoroughly. The following spring 
plant clover or grass, and when wheat is again introduced in the rotation, but 
few weeds will be discovered, and those can be pulled out by the hand. 
TORY WEED OR HOUND’S TONGUE, is a coarse plant, growing 
along roadsides about two feet high, bearing purple 
red flowers, the flat seed roughened all over with short 
barbed or hooked prickles, causing them to adhere to 
clothing, and to the hair and wool of animals It is 
biennial and extirpated the same way as burdock, mul¬ 
lein, etc. 

JAMESTOWN WEED, OR STINK WEED, is a 
coarse foetid plant, growing on the roadside and waste 
places. It is an annual and easily destroyed. 

LAMB’S QUARTERS, GOOSE FOOT OR PIG 
WEED.—An annual plant, one that every farmer is 
acquainted with, and which grows abundantly in gar- 
Fig. 426. Tory Weed, dens and other cultivated grounds. It is easily de- 
or Hound s I ongue. str0 y e( j by pi ow , hoe or cultivator, before it attains 

an inch or two in height, and none can go to seed. 

GREEN AMARANTH, sometimes called Pig Weed, is a coarse annual 
weed and like lamb’s quarters it finds its way into culti¬ 
vated grounds. It is easily destroyed by the plow, hoe 
or cultivator. 

CHESS, CHEAT OR BROWN GRASS.—This is 
undoubtedly one of the most troublesome weeds 
which infest the wheat fields of this 
country, and one that every farmer is 
fully acquainted with by sad experience. 

Many supposed for a long time that 
this weed was produced from degen¬ 
erated wheat, but the fact that it 
belongs to another distinct germ from 
wheat, renders this impossible. The 
•extermination of this troublesome 
weed is a simple matter—and the way 
is, sow none but perfectly clean seed, 
and it will gradually disappear from Fig. 428. Chess 
the fields. 

WILD CHAMOMILE OR LARGE MAY-WEED.—This is nearly alli¬ 
ed to the May-weed, and distinguished from that by its darker green below 
and more heavy appearance above, by its more aromatic and less offensive 




Fig. 427. Green 
Amaranth. 



412 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



odor, and its more coarsely cut leaves, and by its far more pernicious char¬ 
acter. After gaining possession of a field, it is a difficult matter to extir¬ 
pate, but the best treatment is a rotation of crops, in which winter grain 
rarely occurs. It is an annual, but generally assumes the character of a 
biennial, especially in winter grain crops. 

FOX-TAIL GRASS.—There are two species of this troublesome weed 
which are often to be found in abundance in corn-fields, and spread rapid¬ 
ly by seed. Every farmer is acquainted with this nuisance, and should as 

> soon as possible eradicate it from his farm. This is easily 
done when they first make their appearance above the 
surface, and if never allowed 
to go to seed, soon disap- 4 
pear. 

TALL CROWFOOT OR 
BUTTER-CUP, is a weed 
common in meadows and 

pastures. It is easily exter- Fig. 431. John’s Wort, 
minated by good cultivation in connection with rotation 
of crops. 

JOHN’S WORT is a well-known and very trouble¬ 
some weed, and one that every farmer knows. In neg- 
^ ^ lected pastures it gets ahead so far as to often greatly di- 

Fig. 430.—-Fox tai s k or exc i u de the grass crop. Good cultivation and 

rotation is the best means we know of to exterminate it. Sheep, however, 
^at it when quite young, and by this means tend to keep it down. 

PLANTAIN.—Every farmer knows this troublesome, though not for¬ 
midable weed. They may be destroyed by cutting off the roots beneath 
the surface, or by rotation of crops and thorough culture. 

POISON HEMLOCK.—This plant in many particulars resembles the 
water hemlock, but is a thicker and 
ranker grower, and can mostly be found 
by the roadsides. It is easily extirpated 
by mowing first before seeding, and by 
cutting up the roots. 

MALLOW.—This is a weed some¬ 
what troublesome in the gardens, but is 
not a very formidable one. It is too 
Poiso'nHern- well known to need description. Cut 

lock. U p by ^e roots before seeding will destroy it. 

POKE, OR POKE WEED is well known to every one. To exterminate 
it cut off with a hoe below the surface. 




Fig. 433. Mallow. 





WEEDS AND HOW TO DESTROY. 4I3 

SHEPHERD’S PURSE is a well-known weed, frequent in waste places, 
and in neglected gardens, and easily extirpated by good culture. 

OX-EYE DAISY.—This is most certainly one of 
the very worst weeds that the farmer has to contend 
with. Every one knows it. The seed are so tehacious 
of life, that even after having passed through the stom¬ 
ach of an animal they will vegetate. The best mode 
to exterminate is thorough cultivation, and may be given 
as follows: Plow the sod thoroughly, plant corn, hoe 
and cultivate well once a week. Next year plow and 
sow in two crops of buckwheat, and the third year ma¬ 
nure and plant corn again; then again two crops of 
buckwheat for two years more, when the daisies will 
have vanished, and the ground be left rich. This weed 
usually grows best in poor pastures, and should be ex¬ 
terminated. 

SOUR DOCK, OR CURLED DOCK, is so well known that it is useless 
to give a description. It is a very troublesome customer, but one that is 
easily destroyed by pulling up the roots before the seeds are formed, while 
the ground is soft from recent rains. If too hard they may be cut off by a 
sharp, narrow tool. 

SORRELL, OR SHEEP SORRELL.—This is a similar weed in many 
respects to the Sour Dock, but much smaller in every way. To extermi¬ 
nate it is a matter of considerable importance, and the best manner is to 
seed down very densely with clover and a small portion of timothy. 

GARLIC, FIELD GARLIC, OR WILD GARLIC.—Overy one under¬ 
stands this customer. It is nearly allied to the onion, and in some places 
grows extensively in meadows and pastures. It is destroyed by rotation of 
crops and thorough cultivation. 

NETTLE.—This is a troublesome weed to farmers, but yet if taken in 
in hand, is not a very formidable one. It can easily be ex¬ 
terminated by cultivation. It is in some portions of the 
country much more troublesome than in others, and the 
quicker a farmer gets rid of it the better. 

SWEET FLAG, OR CALAMUS, is known by its strong 
aromatic character and odor, and often can be found in 
abundance in marshy lands, where it will exclude everything 
else. To eradicate it, the first thing to do is to drain the 
land, and then repeatedly plow with a steel mould-board 
and harrow, for two seasons. In case the land cannot be 
Fig. 435.—Nettle, drained, the mass of plants may be cut into blocks with 




Fig. 434 - 
Ox-Eye Daisy. 


4H 


brand's cyclopedia. 


sharp spades and thrown into heaps. When these heaps dry, remove the 
block of roots, and convert them into compost in layers with stable manure. 
Seed the cleaned land with red-top or timothy, if dry enough. 

WATER HEMLOCK.—The stem and leaves, and the root especially, 
are deadly poison. It should be carefully exterminated. 

THISTLE OR HORSE-THISTLE.—A coarse, rough biennial plant. It 
is easily exterminated by cutting off the root with a stiff hoe, below the sur¬ 
face. If done when in blossom, the root will not sprout again. 

BURDOCK.—Known as a coarse, rank, bitter weed, with very large 
burs, which become entangled in the wool of sheep, hair of horses, cattle, 
and in clothing. It is a biennial and easily destroyed by cutting off the 
root a few inches below the surface, although in some cases it will take 
years to completely exterminate it. 

CAT TAIL, FLAG, OR COOPER’S REED, is 
conspicuous for its long leaves, and grows in swampy 
places. To destroy them, underdrain the land, or 
cart on earth, or both if desired, and then seed with 
red-top; or if well-drained, with timothy. 

CANADA THISTLE.—This is an enemy that 
every farmer fears, and many suppose that after once 
taking possession of a field, that it is impossible to 
eradicate it from the soil. But the best way to get 
the control of these nuisances, is to plow them under, 
and continue the plowing often enough to keep them 
well smothered. If well and deeply done, once a 
Fig. 436. Canada Thistle, month will be sufficient. 

TOAD FLAX, OR SNAP DRAGON, by some called “ Butter and 
This is a very troublesome customer, and a very pernicious weed. 
It is common in many places along the roadside, fences, and in 
pastures. Cattle will not only not eat it, but also will they not eat 
the grass that grows with it. Spreading in dense patches, it soon 
prevents the growth of other plants. The best mode to extermi¬ 
nate it is repeated plowing and harrowing. 

MILK WEED, OR SILK WEED, is well-known by the milky 
juice which flows out when the plant is cut or broken. The weed 
is very troublesome on account of its lunning roots. Like the 
Canada thistle, it may be destroyed by never allowing the roots to 
breathe through leaves. This may be done by repeatedly pulling 
out the young plants the moment they appear above ground, or by 
deep and repeated plowing, followed by hand-pulling. 

HORSE NETTLE.—A very troublesome weed, and more so at the 



Pip:- 437 ' 
Toad 
Flat. 



WEEDS AND HOW TO DESTROY. 


415 




South than at the North. The only way to destroy it is by hand-pulling 
and thorough cultivation. 

COUCH-GRASS, QUITCH-GRASS, OR QUACK GRASS. —This 
grass, on account of its great tenacity of life, and its 
creeping roots, is one very difficult to destroy, and 
is besides one of the most troublesome and obsti¬ 
nate weeds that a farmer has 
got to contend with. The best 
mode of extermination is to 
select a time when the weather 
and soil are in the dryest' 
state, and plow, harrow, and 
rake the roots into heaps, 
and when dry burn them. Re¬ 
peat the operation until you 

are satisfied that you have Fig ' 439 - Poison Sumach ' 
..... destroyed them. 

Quitch-grass,' “or qK- POISON SUMACH AND POISON VINE.— 
grass. This is not only a troublesome but a disagreeable 

weed to have on the farm. Some persons are poisoned by it, or even by 
coming near it, and blisters are formed on the skin, while others are in no 
manner affected by it. They should be exterminated by cutting up as fast 
as they appear. 

BLACKBERRY OR WILD BLACKBERRY.—This well known shrub 
often takes possession of waste ground on the land of slow going farmers, 
or on newly cleared fields. Every farmer has seen this, and how to eradi¬ 
cate them is the question. Early in the spring, when the leaves and shoots 
are tender, sheep will eat and reduce them, especially if strewed with salt; 
and towards the close of summer mowing them near the ground, which 
checks their vigor. Plowing and planting with hoed crops enables the 
farmer to eradicate them, or sow buckwheat, or better still, corn fodder in 
thick drills, cultivating two or three times. 

ELDER BUSH.—A very troublesome bush. The remedy recommend¬ 
ed for blackberry bushes will destroy it. If the bushes are cut early in 
summer, and the brush burned upon the stubs, and then all the sprouts 
pulled up the moment they appear, the roots will soon perish. Some at¬ 
tempt to root them out by digging down deeply for the roots, but it is much 
easier to starve the roots to death by allowing no leaves to grow above 
ground. 

ALDER.—This well-known shrub grows along the margins of streams 
and in swamps, needlessly occupying the ground. To destroy them, cut 
them closely during the last half of summer, for two or three seasons. 










% 








Grafting, Budding and Cuttings, 


''Amlk 

MUM 



Fig. 440. 


PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS is the simplest of all modes of mul¬ 
tiplying or increasing a variety. It simply consists in the insertion of a 
shoot of one year’s growth in the soil. Under many circum¬ 
stances, or in open ground, this mode can be applied to only 
such species as readily throw out roots, such as the currant, 
gooseberry, quince, grape, etc. Cuttings from such fruit as the 
apple and pear can only be made to take roots by confining the 
moisture under glass while artificial heat is applied. We might 
here add that cuttings of such trees as have a large pith suc¬ 
ceed best when taken off with a portion of the preceding year’s 
wood, such as the gooseberry, cur- - 
rant, vine, fig, etc. With such shoots * 

as are large and strong, the best sue- Flg ’ 441 * 

cess will result if cuttings are separated at the point between the one and 
two year’s growth. When we use small side-shoots, they should be cut 
closely to the main stem, so that the collar , or enlarged portion of the 
wood at the base of the shoot will be secured. Also the cut, if possible, 
should be made immediately below a bud, as roots are the more readily 
thrown out. 

Autumn and winter is the best time to take off cuttings. If not taken 
off till spring the operation must be performed as early as possible. In or¬ 
dinary cases the shoot, to prevent drying, should be buried about two-thirds 
or three-fourths beneath the surface, and it would still further increase their 
value by covering them, so that they retain their moisture, with manure, 
leaves or moss, or by placing them under the shade of a wall or close fence. 
Press the soil closely about them. If the cutting is long, like that of the 
grape, they should be placed sloping, so as not to be buried too deep or 
beyond the influence of the heat of the sun. 

To procure young plants of the currant and gooseberry with straight, clean 
stems at the surface, and free from suckers, every bud should be removed, 
with the exception of a few at the upper end. The length may be from 
eight to twelve inches. 

PROPAGATION BY LAYERS is another manner of reproducing. A 
26 4i7 



brand’s cyclopedia. 


418 

layer is a low side-shoot bent down and buried at the middle in the soil. 
The portion of the shoot that is buried strikes root, when it is taken off and 
planted separately. It has a great advantage over a cutting from the fact 
that while the roots are being formed it receives nourishment continually 
from the parent plant. Another important fact in favor of this plan is, that 
many plants which cannot be increased by cuttings, and even with great 
difficulty by budding and grafting, may yet be readily propagated by layers. 

Such plants as the grape, from which roots are freely emitted, it is only 
necessary to simply bend the middle of the branch into the soil to insure 
success. But this will not always 
do, but in cases of difficulty, other 
plans are resorted to, one of Jthe 
most common of which is to split a 
portion upwards, immediately under 
a bud (fig. 444) which enables the Fig. 444. Splitting 
Fig* 443 * Layering. new |y f orm i n g roots to pass freely Layering. 

and at once into the soil without the resistance of the thick bark which 
they otherwise must pierce. Many times the branch is cut partly off to 
intercept the downward passage of the fluids, and induce them to form 
into roots, at other times a wire ligature, or the removal of a narrow ring 
of bark, effects the same purpose. Burying the layers several inches under 
the surface is necessary, to keep it in moist earth; in case of drought, 
mulching is beneficial. A small hole in the ground is convenient, and in 
case the branch is stiff, it must be fastened down with a forked stick 

The best condition of a plant for layering purposes, is when the bark is 
somewhat soft and not too ripe, and on the other hand, the worst shoots 
are those which are stunted, and with a hard bark. But yet all shoots if 
not actually diseased, will root by layers, if sufficient time be given. 
Layers, like cuttings, may be made of the ripened wood in autumn or 
spring, or of the growing wood at or a little before mid-summer when the 
portion intended to root is somewhat mature and firm in texture. The ap¬ 
ple, pear, or quince, if layered early in the spring, or the grape in.summer, 
will be usually well-rooted in autumn. A moist season is the most favor¬ 
able one to the rooting of layers, as it causes a softer bark on the same. 

Besides the apple, pear, grape and quince, the layer plan is also extensively 
used for propagating many ornamental trees and shrubs. Suckers may be 
regarded as spontaneous layers, the new shoots being sent up from the buds 
or the roots, or portions of the stem beneath the surface of the ground. 
They are much employed in increasing most species of raspberry, while 
the runners of strawberries may be regarded as layers or suckers above 
ground. 





GRAFTING, BUDDING AND CUTTINGS. 


419 


PROPAGATION BY GRAFTING differs mainly and essentially from 
increasing by cuttings, as also by the layer system. There are several re¬ 
quisites to make grafting successful, the first being that the graft be so set 
in the stock, that the sap may flow upward without interruption ; secondly, 
that the forming-wood may extend downwards uninterruptedly through the 
inner bark. 

The first requisite is best attained by keeping a keen, flat bladed knife to 
cut the faces, and another knife for other purposes. Secondly, requires that 
the jaws of the stock, in cleft grafting, press with some force, but not too 
much against the wedge-shaped sides of the graft. A stock one-third of 
an inch in diameter will sometimes do this sufficiently; but three-quarters 
of an inch is a more convenient size. In whip grafting , the tongue and 
slit should be firmly crowded together. Thirdly, the requisite is attained 
by close examination with the eye, so that the line of division between the 
inner bark and the wood should coincide or exactly correspond in each. 
Fourthly, the wounded parts made by the operation be effectually excluded 
from the external air. This is accomplished by the application of grafting- 
clay. Graftmg-wax may be made by melting together resin, tallow, and 
bees-wax in such proportions as to admit of being easily applied when 
softened by warmth, but not liable to melt and run in the heat of the sun. 
Another excellent grafting-wax is made of three parts resin, three of bees-wax 
and two of tallow. These ingredients, after being melted and mixed together, 
may be applied in different ways. The wax may be directly applied when 
just warm enough to run, by means of a brush ; or it may be spread thickly 
with a brush over sheets of muslin, which are afterwards, during a cold day, 
cut up into plasters of convenient size for applying; or, the wax, after cold, 
may be worked up with wet hands, and drawn out into thin strips of rib¬ 
bons, and wrapped closely around the inserted graft. To make the suc¬ 
cess more certain, the wax should be pressed closely so as to fit every part, 
and leave no crevices, so that the stock and graft be totally excluded from 
the external air. In cool weather, a lantern, chafing-dish, or hot brick, 
will be found necessary to soften the plasters before applying them. 

The following figures represent the two most common methods of graft¬ 
ing fruit trees: Figs. 

445, 446, 447 and 
448 representing 
Fig. 445- successive stages of 

whip or tongue grafting from the sloping cut of the scion and stock, to the 
completion of the op¬ 
eration by the covering 
with the wax plaster. Fig. 448. 






Fig. 446. 


Fig. 447 - 




420 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Sp^SSlSiP 


Whip-grafting may be employed for large stocks, as shown by the en¬ 
graving, 449. In order that the line of separation between the bark and 

wood may agree in both, the graft must be 
placed at one side of the large stock, a , sloped 
and tongued for the reception of the graft b % 
their union being represented by c. To aid 
the wrapping of the wax plasters, one side 
and the upper point of the stock are pared off 
with a knife, before the two are joined, as 



Fig. 449 - 

Whip-grafting large stocks. 


shown by the dotted line. This is an excellent method of grafting any stock 
not over three-fourths of an inch in diameter. 

Fig. 450 shows a stock cut off for cleft prafting, with the upright cleft sep¬ 
arated by an iron or steel wedge, ready for the graft. 
Fig. 451, the graft cut wedge form to fit it; and fig. 
452, the graft is placed in its position, after the with¬ 
drawal of the wedge, the projecting angle of the stock 
sloped off with a knife, and the whole ready for the ap¬ 
plication of the grafting wax. 

Whip-grafting is more particularly applicable to 
small stocks, or where the graft and stock are nearly 
of the same size, and cleft-grafting to stocks consider¬ 
ably larger than the scion. 

There are other methods of grafting which often are useful. In saddle¬ 
grafting the is stock sloped on each side, giving it the form of a wedge, fig. 
453 ,a; the graft is split in the 

centre, and each side thin- - ^-n n ijftr' 

ned away with the knife, as Fl S* 454 - 



450. 451- 45 2 - 

Cleft-grafting. 



Fig. 453 - 

a saddle upon it, fig 


in fig. 453, b, until it will closely fit when placed like 
454. The best and most complete way to fit the 
graft, is to make a long sloping cut from the outer edge or bark, 
by drawing the blade from heel to point, till it reaches the middle 
of the graft, and then another similar cut completes the acute cavity for fit¬ 
ting the wedge of the stock. A sharp, broad and thin blade is needed for 
this operation. A wax plaster, drawn closely round the place of union, 
completes the work. In case the stock and graft are very nearly of a size, 
this is a good mode of grafting, as large corresponding surfaces are made 
to fit, and the graft receives freely the ascending sap. 

We would remind the reader that in all these modes of grafting that when¬ 
ever a wedge is made to enter a cleft, it should be thickest on the side 
where the fit is made between the two parts, so as to receive the full pressure 
of the cut faces at that side. 















GRAFTING, BUDDING AND CUTTINGS. 


421 


A modification of saddle grafting, very successful in its results, is thus per¬ 
formed; late in the spring, after the growth has commenced, the scion, which 
is much smaller than the stock, is split up, nearer to one side, more than 
half its length (fig. 454.) The stronger side is then sharpened into a 
wedge at its point, and introduced between the bark and the wood, a slight 
longitudinal slit being made through the bark of the stock that it may onen 
slightly and admit the graft. The thinner division of the graft is fitted to the 
opposite sloping side of the stock. The whole is thenc overed with wax. The 
great length of that portion of the graft in contact with the bark and fresh 
wood, greatly facilitates their union ; while the cut face of the stock is speedily 
covered with a new growth by that part of the graft which rests upon it. 

In grafting the peach, which, from its large pith and spongy wood, 
scarcely ever succeeds as commonly performed, it is found advantageous, 
in selecting the grafts, to leave a quarter of an inch 
of the more compact two years’ wood at the lower 
extremity. 

455 * Sadle-grafting. j n g ra ftj n g t ] ie pi um an d cherry, success is found 
to be much more certain when the work is performed very early in the 
spring, before the buds commence swelling, or even before the snow has 
disappeared from the earth. Apples and pears may be grafted later, and 
if the scions have been kept in good condition in a dormant state, they 
will generally grow if inserted even after the trees are in leaf. 

After the insertion of the graft, and immediately after the tree com¬ 
mences growth, the buds on the stock must be rubbed off, so that the rising 
sap shall be thrown into the scion. In case large trees are grafted, it is 
only necessary to rub off the buds on the branch which holds the graft. 

In case the sorts are rare, and the same have been grafted late in spring, 
and it is desirable to preserve them, a loose wrapper of white paper round 
the graft will protect it from the drying and scorching rays of the sun, or from 
shriveling, and failure will often be prevented by covering the whole graft 
with a wax plaster; or by encasing it in moss kept damp by occasional 
applications of water. 

ROOT-GRAFTING is performed by taking up the stocks by the roots 
and inserting the grafts immediately into the part below ground after the 
tops are cut off, when they are again planted out, with the tip of the graft 
only above ground. This mode is successful with the apple, and occasion¬ 
ally with other trees, and is adopted on a large scale by nurserymen, the 
work being performed in winter or early spring within doors, and the grafted 
roots kept in cellars till the ground is ready to receive them. 

The first operation is to cut up the grafts from the shoots or scions. It 



422 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


is performed by holding the 
scion in the left hand, the 
Fig. 45 6. thicker end pointing towards 

the right hand, which holds the knife. Such a shoot is represented, of 
diminished size, by fig. 456, the points, a, a , 0, the place where it is cut 
into grafts, and the dotted lines show how 
the cuts are made. Fig. 457 shows a por¬ 
tion of the shoot the natural size ; 1 the first Flg * 457 - 

cut nearly directly across ; 2, the second or sloping cut, and 3, the slit for 
the tongue ; and the whole finished and separ¬ 
ate in fig. 458. Three strokes of the knife are 
Fig. 45 s - thus required to cut and prepare each graft. 

Each shoot is thus cut up while yet held in the left hand, and the grafts, as 
fast as they are severed, drop into the cavity of the apron. The counting 
is done during the process of cutting, and at no other time. 

The second operation is setting these grafts into the roots. Each root is 

held in the left hand precisely as 
the scion has been, fig. 459, the 
three cuts are given it (shown by 
Flg * 459 - the dotted lines in fig. 460,) to pre¬ 

pare it for the graft. The grafts having been placed directly under the op¬ 
erator’s fingers, 

^ and in the right 

Fig. 460. position, each Fig. 462/ 

one is successfully taken and firmly fitted to the prepared root, as shown in 
fig. 462, and as soon as this is done, another cut of the knife, three inches 
lower down the root, severs it, and the root-graft is finished, and drops off 
obliquely on the table. Another sloping cut on the same root, and a slit 
for the tongue, are quickly made, and another graft picked up and inserted, 
the root being all the time held in the left hand until worked up. A single 
root will sometimes make but one graft, but usually two or three and some¬ 
times even more. Each part of the root should be about five inches long 
and the graft five inches. 

CUTTING GRAFTS.—Grafts are usually cut during the latter part of 
winter or early in spring ; but if well kept they may be taken from the tree 
at any time between the cessation of growth in late summer or autumn, 
and the commencement of vegetation in spring. 

They may be preserved out of doors safely, if buried in moderately moist 
earth, by placing the same in a box open downwards, and buried on a diy 
spot, the scions being kept from contact with the earth by sticks across the 
box. They may be conveniently preserved in a cellar in a box of damp 











GRAFTING, BUDDING AND CUTTINGS. 


423 


powdered moss, or in a moderately moist peat or black muck. Saw-dust 
answers the same purpose, if not in large quantities, so as to become 
heated. In cutting, the names may be kept tem¬ 
porarily, by writing with a common lead pencil on 
a shaved portion of the shoot, as seen in the cut,, 
but in case you desire to pack away permanently, it 
is best to write the name on both sides of a piece 
of shingle, say about twelve inches long (see fig. 
464,) and tie this up with the scions, as seen in 
fig. 465. By writing the name on both sides of the 


Figs. 463, 464, 465. Mark- 
and Packing Grafts. 


shingle, in case it gets erased from the outside, then the name on the inside 
will still be there to show what kind the shoots may be. 

Scions not fully hardy, as of most sorts of plums, should be cut early in 
winter, or before they have been exposed and injured by severe cold. 

In case the grafts have become dry, they may be restored, if the moisture 
is applied so gradually that its absorption may require several weeks, by 
burying them as above stated. 

PROPAGATION BY BUDDING consists in introducing the bud of one 
tree with a portion of bark and a small amount of adhering bark of an¬ 
other, and upon the face of the newly forming wood. The budding pro¬ 
cess must be performed while the stock is in state of vigorous growth. An 
incision is made lengthwise through the bark of the stock, and a small cut at 
right angles at the top, the whole somewhat resembling the letter T, fig. 
466. A bud is then separated from the shoot of the present year’s growth, 
by shaving off the bark an inch or inch and a half in length, with a small 
amount of wood directly beneath the bud. Fig. 467. The edges of the 
bark, at the incision in the stock, are then raised a little, fig. 468, and the 

bud pushed downwards under the bark. 
A bandage of bass, corn-husk, or other 
substance, is wrapped round, covering 
all the parts but the bud. The pres¬ 
sure should not be too hard, but only 
sufficient to keep the inserted portion 
closely to the stock, but being careful 
not to bruise or crush the bark, fig. 470. 
The time that the shoots containing 
the buds should be cut should be when they are so mature as to be rather 
firm and hard in texture, and usually they are in the best condition after the 
formation of the terminal bud. 

To prevent writhering, the leaves of the shoot must be immediately cut 
off, leaving about one-quarter of an inch of the footstalks of the leaves, to 



Figs. 466. 467. 468. 


Successive stages of budding. 















424 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 



serve as candles to the buds while inserting them, fig. 471. After being 
thus stripped of leaves, they can safely be kept a week in a cool, damp 
place. 

When, by growth of the stock, the bandage cuts into it, usually in ten 
days or more, the same must at once be removed. The bud remains dor¬ 
mant until the following spring, when the stock is cut off two inches or 
more above it, before the swelling of the bud. If cut closer, the end of the 
stock becomes too dry, and the bud often perishes. 

All other buds must be then removed, and all the 
vigor of the stock or branch thrown into the remain¬ 
ing bud, which immediately commences a rapid 
growth. 

To secure a straight and erect tree, the new shoot 
Fig. 471.Stick when a few inches long, is tied to the remaining 

with bud stump of the stock (fig. 472.) By another month f 
no further support will be required, and the stump may be wholly Fig. 472. 
cut away, and the wounds permitted to heal by the rapid forma- youngshoot. 
tion of new wood. 

Budding is performed in summer, grafting in spring, and both have 
their advantages. Budding is a simpler operation, and more successfully 
performed by a new beginner. Grafting requires less care subsequently, 
and may be conveniently employed as a remedy for failures in the previous 
summer’s budding. 

GRAFTS— Cutting. —Those who expect to use quantities of grafts in 
spring may find it most convenient to cut them in December, and not be 
compelled to perform it hurriedly, with perhaps the omission of what they 
most want, just before using. Very severe winters sometimes injure the 
shoots, or when apparently uninjured, their vigor of growth is lessened, and 
they do not start so readily. This may prove the turning point between the 
growing and dying of a graft. Plums and pears are more apt to be thus 
afflicted. By cutting them early in winter, all danger of this kind is 
avoided. 

TERMINAL BUDDING.—In case buds are scarce, it sometimes hap¬ 
pens that the terminal shoot may be used to advantage. In a case like 
this the wood is cut sloping downward, and the insertion is made as usual 
(%• 47 2 >) except that it becomes necessary to apply 
the whole of the ligature below the bud. The buds 
on small side-shoots which are not more than an 
inch or two long may be successfully used in this 
way, as the terminal eyes are stronger than any of 



Fig. 473.—Terminal Bud 
ding. 


the others. This practice may sometimes be adopted with advantage with 


GRAFTING, BUDDING AND CUTTINGS. 


425 


the peach, where scions of feeble growth can only be obtained, as ter¬ 
minal buds usually escape the severity of winter when most of the others 
are destroyed. 


ANNULAR BUDDING is applicable to trees of hard wood, or thick or 
«agap 1 111 n bark, as the walnut and magnolia. A ring of bark is 

removed from the stock; and another corresponding ring, 
containing the bud, slit open on one side, is made to fit 
Si i 3 a ) the denuded space, fig. 474. 

Fig. 474. Annular PRUNING THE PLUM. — Nearly the same rule ap- 
Budding. plies to pruning the plum as to the cherry; but a single 
shoot sometimes makes a long growth in a single season, an eye must be 
kept to them, and the necessary rubbing and pinching performed, that they 
do not outgrow the others. 

PRUNING OLD TREES.—The mode of treating large trees has been 
already adverted to in the chapter on pruning. There 
are some owners of orchards who most erroneously 
suppose that when trees become old, heavy pruning 
will restore their vigor in the absence of good cultiva¬ 
tion ; while the correct mode of treatment is very mod¬ 
erate and gradual prunning, in connection with the 
best of cultivation. The annexed correct portraits of Fig. 475. 
actually existing specimens of bad pruning, unhappily have too many ori¬ 
ginals over the country (fig. 475.) This most unsightly mode of trimming 
is often adopted when a removal of the top by grafting is intended. 

PRUNING THE PEACH.—There is no tree that requires so much 
pruning as the peach. It is known by all that the young tree bears large, 
handsome and excellent fruit, while the old, enfeebled tree yields nothing 
but small specimens of inferior quality. Continued pruning will prevent this 
bad result. A good mode of prun¬ 
ing is to cut off two or three years’ 
growth at a time from all the lower 
branches, taking care to leave a 
sufficiency of young wood, and 
always cutting back to a fork, so as 
not to make a dead stub. 

In cases where the pruning has been neglected on 
young trees until they have attained several years of 
age, and the shoots have just begun to die out in the centre, a still more 
wholesale kind of pruning may be adopted. Three or four feet may be 
taken off, in cases of necessity, at a single stroke, and if judiciously per¬ 
formed, will convert the broad head which is beginning to become 






426 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


enfeebled, into a smaller, neat, round and open head, possessing all the 
thriftiness of a young tree, and bearing as large and excellent fruit. Fig. 
476 shows the tree before being thus cut back, and fig. 477 the same, with 
all the ends of the branches, shown by dotted lines, removed. It must be 
remembered here, as in other instances, that the outer shoots must be 
sufficiently thinned-back to admit light to the interior. The shearing, which 
is sometimes adopted, like that of a common hedge, only thickens the 
foliage on the outside, and increases instead of diminishing the evil. 

SPRING BUDDING is successfully practiced as soon as trees are in 
leaf, the buds having been kept dormant by being placed in an ice house 
or a cool cellar. As soon as they have adhered, the stock is headed down, 
and a growth is made the same season. The peach, the nectarine, the ap¬ 
ricot, and the mulberry, all difficult to propagate by grafting, may in this 
way be easily increased by budding. If the buds are kept in a cellar, it 
will be found important to preserve with them as uniform a degree of moist¬ 
ure as possible, and in as small a degree as will keep them from wilting. 

PRUNING APPLE TREES.—We have given elsewhere directions in 
relation to forming a high or low top. On account of 
the crowded growth of nursery trees, they are likely to 
push upward to reach the light, at the expense of the 
side-branches. In addition to this influence, being 
closely trimmed on the sides to make them tall, such 
mismanaged trees assume the appearance of the an- 
Fig nexed engraving. A better and superior shaped tree pig ^ 

Nursery is shown in fig. 479. As all nursery trees succeed bet- Wett form- 
tree prun- ter an( j are more vigorous and surer to live, as well as ed y° un g 
high, handsomer in appearance when set out quite young, or 
at not more than two years from the bud or graft, the following directions 

f apply to such trees at the time of planting, and immediately 
afterwards. Three or four side-shoots on the unformed tree, 
t figs. 480 and 481, should be at first selected to form the 
main branches and to constitute the foundation or frame 
^ work of the future top. Two buds will be sufficient to grow 
on each of these shoots, making eight at the end of the 
season, taking care that all are distributed at equal distan- 
ces. All the other shoots should be rubbed off with the 
thumb and finger as soon as they form. The second year 
the same process is repeated on the new shoots and continued 
until a handsome, even, symmetrical frame-work for the future head Fi g- 481. 
is obtained, after which comparatively little attention will be necessary. A 
large orchard of young trees may be managed in this way with a very few 






GRAFTING, BUDDING AND CUTTINGS. 


427 




days’ labor—far less than that afterward required in cutting out large limbs 
and giving shape to the distorted tops of full grown, neglected orchards. 
These rules will apply, substantially, to the pruning of standard pears, ex¬ 
cept that they generally require less thinning out. 

Nearly the same course is to be pursued in forming the heads of dwarf 
apple trees, with the exception that the base of the head should 
Jbe only about ten inches from the ground (fig. 482,) or if they 
be half-standards on Doucain stock, the heads 
should be about twenty inches or two feet high. 

PRUNING THE GOOSEBERRY AND CUR-, 

RANT.—In the culture of the gooseberry and cur¬ 
rant three distinct modes are adopted. The first, 

Fig. 482*. which is quite common in this country, is to plant the 
Well-formedbushes along garden fences, where they often grow Fig. 483. 

head ' up with grass, and being neither cultivated nor cared Dwarfa PP le - 
for, the fruit becomes small and of little value. This is the worst mode. 

The next is to cultivate, but not to prune. The fruit on such bushes is 
fine while they are young, but as they become filled with a profusion of old 
bearing wood it diminishes in size. 

The third and best mode is to give them good, clean cultiva¬ 
tion, and to keep up a constant supply of young bearing wood, 
yielding large and excellent crops. 

The currant and gooseberry, like the cherry, bear their fruit 
on shoots two or more years old; and it is important that a suc- 
Fig. 484. cession of strong young shoots be maintained for this purpose. The 
seedHngs? branches of the heads should therefore be distributed at equal dis¬ 
tances, and the old bearing spurs cut out when they become too thick or 
enfeebled, and new shoots allowed successively to take their place. 

When a young gooseberry or currant bush is set out, all the buds or 
suckers below the surface of the ground should be previously cut off clean 
so as to form a clear stem. It is often recommended that this stem be a 
foot high before branching—which does well for the moist climate of Eng¬ 
land ; but under our hot suns it is better that the branches begin near the 
surface of the ground. 

Old currant bushes, such as have grown up to a thick mass, may be 
greatly improved, and will increase the fruit several times in size, by thin¬ 
ning out clean all the old crooked wood, and leaving a sufficient number 
of young stems, at equal distances, to bear the future crop. 

The English goosberry, in this country, will remain free from mildew only 
so long as it is kept in a vigorous growing condition by frequent and judi¬ 
cious pruning, so as to give a constant succession of strong shoots. 





428 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


REGRAFTING LARGE PEAR TREES.—Before closing this chapter 
it may be well to give some directions for changing the tops of bearing 
pear trees. Some of the varieties described in the foregoing pages have 
already shown indications of becoming generally affected by cracking, and 
this disease may render a part of them worthless. In such cases it be¬ 
comes desirable to regraft them with valuable sorts. 

The old and common way is to cut off the trunk or a few of the larger 
limbs, and insert a few grafts, say four or five in all, and compel them to 
form the whole new head, requiring the lapse of many years. A much bet¬ 
ter and more expeditious mode is to scatter the grafts through the top—in¬ 
serting so many that each one forming a small branch of itself, the whole 
taken together will make a full top in a few years. 

In order to render the operation plain, fig. 486 is made to represent the 
unchanged tree at an age of from ten to twenty years. All the smaller 
branches are cut away, and those of medium size left 
distributed at as regular distances as may be. As the 
tendency of the growth is upwards, the top should be 
rather worked downwards in this operation and the 
side limbs near the bottom allowed a full chance. In 
the ends of all these shoots some thirty or forty grafts 
are set, as shown in fig. 487. Trees of the Virgalieu 
or Doyenne, which had become worthless by cracking, 
and which were large enough to bear a bushel or two annually, have been 
entirely changed in this way to better sorts, and yielding three years after¬ 
wards larger crops than ever. 

Dwarf pear trees of undesirable varieties may be readily changed in this 
way to other sorts—the more easily because they are lower, accessible 
from the ground. Old dwarf trees which have become enfeebled by long 
bearing and spared pruning, may be thus rendered thrifty and vigorous. 
With large sized trees the safest plan to adopt is to change the upper half 
in one year, and the remainder for the purpose of avoiding too great a check 
in growth. 

PRUNING DWARF PEARS.—Dwarf pear trees are usually pruned 
into the pyramidal and conical form, the latter differing only in its broader 
shape. The principle to be adopted in pruning has been already explained 
on a former page ; the extent to which it must be carried, should be such 
as to keep the trees within ten or twelve feet in height, and six or seven 
feet in diameter at the base. A greater height increases the difficulty of 
pruning. The same reason forbids the adoption of a head with a clean 
stem below, as in common standards. 

The pyramidal mode of pruning may be applied to pear trees upon pear 



Fig. 486. 




GRAFTING, BUDDING AND CUTTINGS. 


429 - 

stocks. Dwarf trees may be planted from ten to twelve feet apart. They 
will always need careful attention to pruning, and to thorough and enriched 
cultivation of the ground. 

In planting out the dwarf pear, the quince stock should be planted a little 
below the surface to elude the borer, which often attacks the quince, but 
rarely the pear. It is sometimes planted deeper for the purpose of caus¬ 
ing the pear to throw out roots of itself, thus changing the dwarf to a 
standard. This practice is objectionable, as such roots are apt to be few 
or one-sided, inclining or prostrating the tree. It is also desirable to retain 
the bearing character of the dwarf. 

When dwarfs become old, or begin to decline, pear roots may be 
given to them, and renewed vigor imparted by planting a small pear tree 
closely on each side, and when these become established, by inarching them 
into the tree, as shown in the annexed cuts. It is performed as follows: 

Make a slit in the bark of the dwarf tree, a few inches above the ground 
and across the lower end of the slit make a cross-cut, so as to form an 
inverted j^. A, trunk of dwarf pear tree; b, pear stocks inserted into 
it, for new bottom ; c, cut for receiving the pear stock; d, pear stock, cut 
ft 4 / /j doping before insertion. If the tree is large, 
make a notch instead of the cut, sloping down- 
wards, the better to admit the stock. Then 
i bend the stock against this notch or cross-cut^ 

fn JR and mark it at that point. Then with a knife 

Jfj S ^ set with the edge upwards at this mark, cut the 
B J V stock off with a slope two or three inches long. 

It is then easily bent and inserted into the slit. 

Fig 488. It may be covered with grafting wax, but grafting clay is 
much better. This is made of clay or clay-loam one part, and horse 
manure two parts, well mixed together—the addition of a little hair is an 
improvement. Cow manure is entirely unfit, being too compact with the 
clay, and not possessing the fibrous character of the other. 

PRUNING THE CHERRY.—The cherry, usually, needs but little 
pruning, after the young tree has been properly formed. As wounds made 
in the winter are apt to form gum, and the removal of much foliage in sum¬ 
mer injures the tree by checking its growth, the rubbing and pinching pro¬ 
cess should be exclusively resorted to, in forming an even and well-distrib¬ 
uted head, nearly aftert he same manner as already described for the apples, 
the only care, as the trees become older, is to see that no shoots, by out¬ 
growing the others, form a distorted top. 

ROOT PRUNING.—This is sometimes done to check the growth of 
trees and produce fruitfulness—in the same way, but in less degree, that 



Fig. 489. 







430 


brand’s cyclopedia. 



transplanting produces a like result. It should usually be done early in 
spring, and with a spade ground sharp and kept solely for this purpose, so 
that the roots may be cut off smoothly, and not torn or bruised, as with a 
dull spade. Any required degree of check may be given to a tree by cut¬ 
ting the roots short or near the foot of the stem—a less check by allowing 
greater length. 

GRAFTING NEW TOPS ON OLD TREES.—It often happens that 
fruit on large trees is worthless, and it becomes an important object to 
change the top by grafting or budding it with some better variety. In this 
case, instead of cutting off large branches and grafting them at once, it is 
better to prune the top in part, as shown by fig. 490, which 
will cause an emission of vigorous shoots. These are then 
budded or grafted with ease and success. And, as the 
grafts gradually extend by growth, the remainder of the top 
may, by successive excisions, be entirely removed. Where 
trees are not too old, and the ground is kept cultivated, 
Fig. 490. good-sized trees are thus obtained much sooner than by 
setting out young ones. 

To give a well shaped head to such newly formed trees, and to prevent 
the branches frorh shooting upwards in a close body near the centre of the 
tree, the old horizontal boughs should be allowed to extend to a distance 
in each direction, while the upright ones should be lopped. 

PRUNING THE GRAPE.—The vines are trained on wire trellis, about 
eight feet high, supported mostly by chestnut posts, but some by locust. 
Since timber has become costly, the posts are placed about twenty feet 
apart; and the vines being about ten feet apart in the row, two occupy 
the spaces between the posts. Three wires are used, the upper being eight 
feet high, and the other two about two and a half feet apart, leaving a space 
of three feet next the ground. 

This space is considered essential to the proper circulation of the air. A 
less height of the trellis was found to cramp unnaturally the growth of the 
Isabella vine; and by raising the trellis from six to nine feet, the product of 
the vine was doubled. A light stool ladder is used 
for gathering the upper branches. 

The mode of training—the result of many years ? 

FigT^gTTlsabella - Grape, experience—is exhibited in the annexed sketch, 
fig. 491. The two upright branches of the vine are permanent, and remain 
as long as the vine lasts, unless accident or injury should require the removal 
and renewal of one of them. A horizontal cane is trained along each wire, 
and is commonly renewed every year, bearing shoots growing on last year’s 
wood. These canes furnish the fruit-bearing shoots, which are commonly 




GRAFTING, BUDDING AND CUTTINGS. 


43 1 



Fig- 493 - 



thinned out so as to be from ten to fifteen inches apart. They are allowed 
to grow their full length, without being stopped, unless it be the first of 
autumn, and commonly attain a length of some three or four feet. The 
weight of the fruit ultimately gives them a drooping position. The space 
between the rows or trellises is commonly eight feet; on rich land a greater 
width is required, and on a poor soil less will answer. 

PROPER TIME FOR PRUNING.—Many cultivators have been mis¬ 
led into the opinion that early summer is the best time to prune, from the 
fact that the wounds heal more readily. Pruning 
after the tree has commenced growth has a tend¬ 
ency in nearly every instance to check the vigor; 
of the tree. For this reason, where the rapid for-0 
mation of young wood is desired, the work must < 
be performed before the buds begin to swell. Some 
planters have objected to shortening-in the shoots 
of newly-set trees, because by doing the work too Fig. 492. 
late, or after the leaves were partially or wholly expanded, they 
have injured and not benefitted them. Any one may easily satisfy him¬ 
self on this point by pruning back the heads of a dozen trees early in the 
season, and leaving those of another dozen until the leaves have open¬ 
ed. They will present the appearance represented in the annexed figures, 
before the close of summer—the first (fig. 492,) with strong, thrifty shoots; 
the latter (fig. 493,) with short, stunted growth. 

There may be an exception to this general rule, where a slight amount 
of pruning in summer, not sufficient to produce any material check in 
growth, may be useful in improving the shape of the tree; such for exam¬ 
ple, as the removal of an occasional, unnecessary shoot or one-sided branch. 

As fresh wounds always render trees more liable to be affected by in¬ 
tense cold, quite hardy trees only may be pruned any time during winter. 
On those inclining to be tender the operation should be deferred till towards 
spring. 




















♦ 






9 















Medical, or home Doctor, 


MEASLES.— Symptoms. —This disease commences with chills, succeeded 
by burning heat, listlessness, drowsiness, languor; rapid pulse; pain in the 
head, back and limbs; soreness of the throat; thirst, nausea, vomiting,, 
dry cough and highly colored urine. These symptoms increase in violence- 
for four days. On the third day the eyes become inflamed, cannot bear' 
the light, and emit a profusion of tears. The nose discharges large quan¬ 
tities of watery substance, and sneezing is frequent. There will also be- 
hoarseness and soreness of the breast. About the fourth day the skiry 
becomes red and the eruption appears, accompanied by heat and itching. 
The eruption consists of numberless red points and pimples, collected into 
patches in the shape of a quarter or half moon. They generally appear 
first on the forehead and front of the neck, then on the cheeks and around 
the nose and mouth, after which they spread to all parts of the body. The 
color of the skin when the inflammation is at its height, is a bright rasp¬ 
berry red. About the eighth or tenth day a diarrhoea generally com¬ 
mences, showing that the inflammation of the mucous membrane is sub¬ 
siding.— Treatment. If the disease be mild and regular, very little will be 
required, except mild diet, slightly acid drinks, with flax-seed tea, slippery- 
elm, or some equivalent, to quiet the cough. Frequent sponging with 
tepid water will moderate the fever and add to the comfort of the patient. 
If the eruption should “ strike in,” use a warm mustard bath. During the 
early stages of the disease the appearance of the eruption can be hastened 
by bathing the feet once or twice a day with hot water, and drinking freely 
of sweating drinks, as saffron, pennyroyal, balm, or mullein teas, and 
applying mustard drafts to the feet. If there should be a fixed pain in any 
part of the chest, which is made worse by coughing or drawing a long 
breath, it is evidence of inflammation in the chest, and it should be treated 
as pneumonia. 

SCARLET FEVER.— Symptoms. —This is an infectious and contagious 
disease, and manifests itself sometimes between the second and tenth days* 
after exposure. It closely resembles measles in its symptoms, and is some¬ 
times mistaken for that disease; but it can readily be distinguished from 
measles by the absence of a cough; by the eruption being finer and of a mor& 


A 3 4 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


scarlet color; by the rash appearing several days earlier; and by the ulcer¬ 
ation in the throat.— Treatment. In ordinary cases the treatment should be 
simple. Keep the room cool and the bed-covering light. Give cooling 
drinks, and sponge the body with cool water as often it becomes hot and 
dry. It may also be beneficial to give a few drops of the tincture of bella¬ 
donna, night and morning.—In severe cases it is well to commence the 
treatment with an emetic, followed by bathing the hands and feet in hot 
water, with a little ground mustard or pulverized cayenne stirred in. This 
■should be done twice a day, twenty minutes at a time, for two or three days. 
After the fever sets in, warm water alone maybe used for the bath. If the 
head be affected, apply mustard to the feet, and prevent costiveness by 
using a very mild cathartic. No solid food should be given, but after the 
first shock of the disease has passed, cooling drinks will be beneficial, such 
as cold water, lemonade, rice water, etc. A good remedy is 45 drops of 
muriatic acid in a tumbler of water, sweetened, and given to a child in tea¬ 
spoonful doses.—In very violent attacks, where typhoid symptoms manifest 
themselves, with great prostration, the eruption striking in, the skin changed 
to a purple or mahogony color, the tongue of a deep red, or with a dark- 
brown fur upon it, and the ulcers in the throat putrid, a tonic treatment must 
be adopted. In such cases a reliable physician should be called in at once. 
—Dropsical affections frequently follow scarlet fever, which can generally 
Be controlled by giving a warm bath twice a week, and encouraging perspi¬ 
ration by the compound tincture of Virginia snake-root, or similar articles. 
Also giving a generous diet, to build up the system. 

CHICKEN-POX— Swine-pox, horn-pox, hives, etc. —These all have 
a family likeness, and are so well-known that they need not be described. 
— Treatment. The same general treatment that would apply to a mild 
-case of small-pox, or varioloid, will be sufficient. 

VARIOLOID.— Symptoms. —The same as in small-pox, except milder. 
— Treat?nent. Sponge the skin frequently with cool water, give cooling 
drinks, and prevent constipation. 

SMALL-POX..— Symptoms. —Languor, lassitude, shivering, pain in the 
head and loins; hot skin, quickened pulse and breathing; thirst, loss of 
appetite, furred tongue, nausea, vomiting, constipation and prostration. 
The tongue is white at first, but soon becomes red at the point and over 
the whole surface. The fever is highest during the night, and preceeds the 
eruption three or four days. The period between the exposure and the 
attack is from five or six to twenty days—short in severe cases and longer 
in the milder ones.— Treatment. But little is required, except confinement 
in bed, cooling drinks, cool and even temperature, frequent changes of 
linen, and sponging the body with cool water. When the eruption has 


MEDICAL. 435 

developed and the secondary fever commenced, a gentle laxative is needed 
to keep the bowles open, and opiates to relieve sleeplessness and nervous 
symptoms. If the eruption appears with difficulty, give the patient a warm 
bath, and administer Dover’s powders. To prevent, pitting paint the face 
once or twice a day with glycerine. 

ERYSIPELAS.— Symptoms.— Chilliness and shaking, succeeded by 
heat, lowness of spirits, pains in the back, limbs and head, quick, hard pulse, 
thirst, loss of appetite, white and coated tongue, bitterness of mouth, vom¬ 
iting, pain in stomach, and costiveness. These general symptoms precede 
local inflammation several days. About the third or fourth day very minute 
blisters appear on the inflamed parts, filled with water, which increaces until 
the blisters break and let it out. The disease reaches its climax on the 
eighth or nine day, when the blisters part and the skin begins to peel off. 
Sometimes matter forms under the skin, and occasionally mortification 
occurs. The seat of erysipelas is most frequently on the face, beginning on 
one side of the nose and soon spreading over that side of the face.— Treat¬ 
ment. Two things must be done—subdue the fever and the local inflam¬ 
mation. The former can be accomplished by rest, mild diet, gentle laxa- 
atives, and by the use of tincture of veratrum. For the local inflammation, 
first wash the inflamed part with soap and water, and wipe the skin dry; then 
moisten the inflamed and surrounding skin with warm water, and pass over 
it a stick of nitrate of silver, touching not only the inflamed part, but going 
an inch beyond it on all sides. A solution of nitrate of silver and nitric acid 
is preferred by some practitioners. A solution of coperas is also a good 
application. Bathe the inflamed skin occasionally with a tea made of buck¬ 
wheat meal; keep the bowels gently open, feed the patient a milk diet and 
give from four to six ounces of port wine daily. 

NETTLE RASH.— Treatment. First, give an emetic, followed by a 
brisk physic, after which give a few doses of quinine. Bathe the eruption 
with water and vinegar frequently, or a solution of corrosive sublimate. 
The diet should be simple and cooling, but avoid all stimulating food and 
condiments. 

ROSE RASH.— Treatment. Light diet, acid drinks, and gentle laxatives. 

HUMID TETTER.— Symptoms. —An eruption of minute, round pim¬ 
ples, about the size of a pin’s head, filled with a colorless fluid, and ter¬ 
minating m scurf. When the blisters break, the water irritates and inflames 
the skin, which becomes red, rough and thickened.— Treatme?it. Low 
diet, cooling drinks, gentle purgatives, and warm baths. In chronic cases, 
apply externally, lime water, or corrosive sublimate in solution, or if the 
case be severe, a solution of nitrate of silver will be a good external appli¬ 


cation. 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


43 6 

HERPES.— Symptoms. —After a slight feverish attack, lasting two or 
three days, clusters of small, transparent pimples, filled generally with a 
colorless fluid, but sometimes with a brownish lymph, appear on the cheeks 
or forehead, or on the extremities, and at times on the body. After a few 
days the vesicles break, and form brown or yellow crusts which fall off 
about the tenth, leaving the surface red and irritable. The eruption is 
attended with heat, itching, tingling, fever and restlessness, especially at 
night.— Treatment . Gentle laxatives and light diet. If the patient be- 
feeble, a mild tonic will be beneficial. Apply externally, white vitriol, or 
elder-flower ointment. 

RINGWORM.—This disease is almost identical with Herpes, the only 
exception being that the inflamed patches assume the form of a ring.— 
Treatment. The same as in Herpes, with proper attention to the diet.— 
The following is also recommended : To one part sulphuric acid, add six¬ 
teen to twenty parts water. Use a brush and feather, and apply it to the 
parts night and morning. A few dressings will generally cure. If the solu¬ 
tion is too strong and causes pain, dilute it with water, and if the irritation 
is excessive, rub on a little oil or other softening application, but always 
avoid the use of soap. Or, wash the head with soft soap every morning, and 
apply the following lotion every night. One-half drachm of subcarbonate 
of soda dissolved in one gill of vinegar. 

ITCH.— Treatment . Wash the skin well with warm water and castile 
soap, then dry with a clean towel, after which rub well into the skin, while 
standing before a fire, four ounces of compound sulphur ointment. This 
should be done night and morning for three or four days, and the disease 
will disappear.—A solution of chloride of lime, used as a wash, will also 
generally effect a cure.—The following are also good remedies: Use plenty 
of castile soap and water, and then apply freely iodide of sulphur ointment, 
or take any given quantity of simple sulphur ointment and color it to a light 
brown or chocolate color with the subcarbonate of iron, and then perfume 
it. Apply this freely, and if the case should be a severe one, administer 
mild alteratives in conjunction with the outward application.-—The sulphur 
bath is a good remedy for itch or any other kind of skin disease. Leprosy 
(the most obstinate of all,) has been completely cured by it, and the com¬ 
mon itch only requires two or three applications to completely eradicate it 
from the system.—Benzine, it is said, will effect a complete cure for scabies, 
in the course of half to three-quarters of an hour, after which the patient 
should take a warm bath from twenty to thirty minutes. 

ITCH— Barber’s.— Moisten the parts affected with saliva (spittle) and 
rub it over thoroughly three times a day with the ashes of a good Ha¬ 
vana cigar. Also stop shaving. This is a simple remedy, but yet it has 
cured the most obstinate cases. 


MEDICAL. 


437 


TETTER — Crusted. — Sometimes called Scald Head.— Treatment. 
Keep clean with castile soap and water. Remove the crusts with weak lye, 
made of hard-wood ashes, or potash ; then apply an ointment made either 
of oxide of zinc, white precipitate, or diluted nitrate of mercury, after which 
cover the inflamed parts with oil skin. If the crusts are all on the head the 
hair should be first cropped off.—Or, take one pound of simple cerate; sul¬ 
phuric acid, one-fourth pound; mix together, and it is ready for use.—Dissolve 
one-half ounce sulphuret of potash in one pint of cold soft water; put it 
in a bottle and tightly cork it. Bathe the eruption five or six, or even more 
times a day, with a sponge dipped in a little of this solution. If the tetter 
should again make its appearance in cold weather, repeat this treatment. 
This is a remedy highly recommended. 

PIMPLES.— Treatment. Careful diet, avoiding butter and greasy sub¬ 
stances, and using gentle cathartics. Apply externally, cold salt water with a 
sponge, and after drying, rub with pure glycerine. 

WARTS.—Remove warts by binding a silk thread tightly around them, 
and allowing it to remain until they come off. Or if this is too severe, 
touch them daily with aqua fortis, or nitrate of silver. 

CORNS.—The best remedy for corns and bunions is to wear loose shoes. 
Rub corns with manganic acid and they will quickly disappear. Or rub 
with glycerine until they are soft, and then scoop them out with the point 
of a knife.—The following corn plaster is a good remedy: Yellow wax, one 
pound ; Venice turpentine, three ounces ; verdigris (finely powdered), one 
ounce. Mix, with heat. 

BUNIONS.—Bathe in warm water until soft, then apply a wash of 
sugar of lead. Do this every night before retiring, and the bunions will 
disappear. 

CHILBLAINS.—Bathe the feet with a strong solution of alum, or a 
mixture of equal parts of oil of turpentine and balsam copaiva. Or, dip a 
piece of white chalk in vinegar, and frequently rub the chilblains with it. 
Or, bind on the thin white skin which comes from suet. 

CHILBLAIN LOTION.—Dissolve one ounce of powdered sal ammo¬ 
niac in one-half pint of vinegar, and apply to the affected parts. 

RUSSIAN REMEDY.—A common remedy for chilblains among the 
peasants of Russia is the rind of perfectly ripe cucumbers, dried with the 
soft parts attached, and placed with the inner side, previously soaked in 
warm water, over the sore parts. Dumitriefsky confirms the efficacy of 
this remedy. 

COLD FEET.—If you are troubled with cold feet at night, draw off your 
stockings just before undressing, and rub your ankles and feet well with 
your hand, as hard as you can bear the pressure, for five or ten minutes, 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


438 

and you will never have to complain of cold feet in bed. It is hardly con¬ 
ceivable what a pleasurable glow this diffuses. Frequent washing of the 
feet, and rubbing them thoroughly dry with a clean linen cloth or flannel, 
is very useful. 

FROST BITE.—To restore affrozen limb or foot, rub it with snow, or 
place it in cold water until the feeling begins to return, then gradually raise 
the temperature by pouring in a little warm water every few minutes. After 
the feeling has been restored, dissolve half a pound of alum in one gallon 
of hot water, or less quantities in proportion; and apply with hot cloths 
laid on the parts, keeping them wet with the wash. 

FROZEN TO DEATH.—If a person become insensible from cold, and 
apparently frozen to death, take his clothes off and cover his body all over, 
except the mouth and nostrils, with snow. If snow cannot be obtained, put 
him in water as cold as ice, and let him lie for some minutes. Then rub 
him with cloths wet with cold water, until the muscles begin to relax. Then 
dry the body and place it in a cold bed, and rub only under the clothes 
with the warm hands. Continue this for hours, or until life begins to appear; 
then give a small injection of camphor and water, and put a drop of spirits 
of camphor on the tongue. After a little, rub with spirits and water, and 
finally with spirits alone, and give coffee, or brandy and water. Persons 
apparently dead can be restored by this treatment. 

MOTHER’S MARKS.—These can be removed by penciling a small 
portion of the surface, from time to time, with nitric acid. But unless the 
mark is growing, or disfigures the face, it had better be let alone. 

PERSPIRATION.—The health is greatly promoted by proper perspira¬ 
tion or sweating. Either too much or too little perspiration is an injury to 
the health, and if the flow be too copious it often becomes offensive. To 
remedy either extreme, bathe regularly and frequently in warm or cold 
baths, rub the skin well with coarse towels, use gentle tonics, and dress 
comfortably. 

BRAIN FEVER.— Treatment. This should be energetic, and adminis¬ 
tered early. Shave the head and apply cloths wetted in water as cold as it 
can be made, changing the cloth frequently; or, put powdered ice in a flex¬ 
ible bladder, and lay it on the head, taking care not to make it too heavy. 
Leeches should also be applied to the neck and back of the ears, to remove 
the blood from the brain. Purge the bowels thoroughly and energetically, 
with calomal, croton oil, or compound powder of jalop. If there is collapse, 
great debility and tremors, coldness of the extremities, etc., give wine or 
other stimulants. See that the urine is evacuated every day. In the early 
stages of the disease, bathe the feet frequently in warm water, or mustard 
and water. Produce sweating and lower the pulse by giving tincture of ver- 
atrum in full doses—this must not be neglected. 


MEDICAL. 


439'* 


DELIRIUM TREMENS.— Treatment. Give one-third of a grain of 
morphia; and if this does not quiet the patient, give thirty drops of laud¬ 
anum every two hours, until he falls asleep. A draught or two of his accus¬ 
tomed drink, whatever it may be, will generally assist the action of the: 
medicine. 

DRUNKENNESS— Chambers’ remedy for. —Tartar emetic, eight' 
grains; rosewater, four ounces. Mix. Put a tablespoonful into the whole 
quantity of liquor drunk each day by the patient, and let him take it as 
usual. Be careful not to exceed a tablespoonful or half an ounce 

APOPLEXY.—This disease is that condition in which all the functions 
of animal life are suddenly stopped, except the pulse and the breathing p 
in which there is neither thought, nor feeling, nor voluntary motion; in 
which the person falls down suddenly and lies as if in a deep sleep. Per¬ 
sons liable to attacks of this disease generally have large heads, red faces,, 
short and thick necks, and short, square build; though it occurs often 
among those who are thin, pale, and tall.— Treatment. Place the patient 
in a half recumbent posture, with the head raised; loosen his clothes, par¬ 
ticularly those around the upper part of the chest, the shirt-collar and- 
neck-cloth or whatever may press upon the neck; then as soon as pos¬ 
sible apply cold, wet cloths to the head and face, changing them frequently. 
Ice will be better if it can be obtained. At the same time apply mustard 
to the feet, and draw tight ligatures around the limbs, to prevent the blood 
from returning rapidly in the veins. Remove the ligatures as soon as con¬ 
sciousness returns. The patient should be bled at the nape of the neck, 
if leaches are convenient or if there is any one present who understands 
cupping. Also administering a stimulating purgative injection, and place two 
drops of croton oil, mixed with a little pulverized loaf sugar, far back on 
the tongue. Repeat the injection every fifteen minutes, until the bowels 
are thoroughly moved. If the patient be old or feeble, the countenance 
pinched, and the skin bloodless and cool, the bleeding, purging, and apply¬ 
ing of ligatures must be omitted. In such cases apply warm flannels and 
hot bricks to the surface, and administer ammonia and camphor internally. 

APOPLEXY—To prevent.— Keep the skin healthy by daily baths and 
friction. Prevent the bowels from becoming costive. Let the diet be light, 
chiefly vegetable, and almost entirely so in hot weather, and whatever is 
eaten should be well chewed. Keep the mind cheerful and hopeful and 
free from excitement. Restrain the sexual passions and indulge them 
very rarely. Eschew intoxicating drinks of all kinds, and discard tight 
shirt-collars and cravats. Avoid the rays of the sun in hot weather. Sleep 
on a mattress, with the head elevated, and eat nothing for three hours 
before retiring. Dip the feet in cold water at night before retiring, and i£ 


440 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


any tendency to cold feet be experienced, sprinkle pulverized cayenne 
pepper in the bottom of the stockings. 

SUN STROKE.—This is a complaint that all are liable to in hot 
weather, especially those who labor in the sun, and it is essential that every 
person should know how to prevent it, and what to do in case of an attack. 
— Prevention. Drink no spiritous liquors, and avoid highly seasoned 
food. Quench the thirst with temperate draughts of clear, cold water. Ice 
water is not injurious if you are accustomed to it, and do not drink too freely. 
Wear a hat that affords ventilation for the head, and in extremely hot 
weather keep a few green leaves in the crown of the hat—cabbage leaves 
are the best. Eat moderately, and do not go into the sun immediately 
after a hearty meal.— Treatment. In case of sunstroke, carry the patient 
immediately into the shade, and dash cold water over the head and upper 
part of the chest—ice water if it can be had soon enough; then employ 
about the same remedies as in apoplexy. The cold water or ice applica¬ 
tions should be continued until consciousness returns. 

In St. Louis, during the summer of 1878, when the great heat wave caused 
sunstrokes to become almost epidemic, about the only remedy employed 
was to pour a constant stream of ice water over the head and chest of the 
patient, and it proved effectual in nearly every case that was treated in time. 
It will not be out of place to state here, also, that nine-tenths of the cases 
of sunstroke at that time were among dissipated or drinking people, and at 
least one-half of them were beer drinkers only. So patent did this fact be¬ 
come that the business of the beer saloons suffered greatly during the con¬ 
tinuance of the heat. 

HYDROPHOBIA.— Treatment. As soon as possible after the wound has 
been inflicted, cut off the bitten part, or apply dry cupping, or suction. Also 
bum the wound with a hot iron or caustic. A lump of nitrate of silver, in¬ 
serted in the wound, it is said, will kill the poison. It is no doubt worth 
trying, after the wound has been cupped or sucked. Quick and vigorous 
measures are required. It is also recommended to wash the wound 
thoroughly with warm vinegar and water, and after drying it pour in ten or 
twelve drops of muriatic acid. At this stage internal remedies are generally 
useless, though it is recommended by eminent practitioners to keep the 
patient, for a long time, under the influence of chloroform or ether. If the 
case is properly and vigorously treated at the beginning, before the poison 
has time to circulate into the system, there will be little danger of future 
attacks; but if the poison be not thoroughly eradicated it may subsequently 
manifest itself in the terrible disease known as hydrophobia. The interval 
between the bite and the appearance of the disease varies from twelve days 
to two months. The wound will heal over, and the patient imagine that he 


MEDICAL. 


441 


is well and free from all danger; but after a while darting pains will begin 
to be felt in the scar, which, if it be a limb that was bitten, will run up to¬ 
wards the body. Sometimes the wound and the flesh adjacent to it will feel 
cold, or numb, or stiff; or the wound may become red, swollen, or livid, 
and occasionally break and discharge matter. The patient will feel a strange 
anxiety, accompanied by depressed spirits, occasional chills, disturbed sleep, 
and spasmodic twitches. The nervous system becomes disordered, trifling 
noises produce agitation; and the eyes are so disturbed by the light that the 
patient will sometimes hide himself in a dark place. Thirst begins to ap¬ 
pear, but the moment he attempts to drink, a spasmodic shudder passes 
over him, and in an instant the fact of his awful condition flashes upon him. 
The remedy in this stage of the disease is red chickweed, or scarlet pimper- 
nell. Four ounces of this plant, in the dried state, should be boiled in two 
quarts of strong beer or ale, until the liquid is reduced one-half. Then press 
out and strain, and add two drachms of laudanum. The dose for a grown 
person is a wine-glassful every morning for three mornings ; or if the case 
is fully developed, the whole may be taken in a single day. The wound 
must also be bathed with the same decoction. 

LOCK JAW.— Treatment. Chloroform and ether are the remedies for 
this disease, taken either into the stomach or by inhalation, in quantities 
sufficient to control the spasms, and continued as long as the spasms occur. 
Remove costiveness by giving one or two drops of croton oil, in a spoon¬ 
ful of gruel. 

EPILEPTIC FITS.—Take of the root or comfrey, sassafras, burdock, 
elecampane and horse-radish, and of hoarhound and raspberry leaves, equal 
parts; make these into a strong tea, and to an adult administer one gill; 
to a child a proportionably less quantity per day. It is said that a black 
silk handkerchief thrown over the face of a person in a fit, will immediately 
bring him out of it. During the continuance of the fit, place a piece of 
leather or cork between the back teeth, to prevent the tongue from being 
bitten. 

FITS.—Take of tincture of foxglove, ten drops at each time twice a day, 
and increase one drop at each time as long as the stomach will bear it, or 
it causes a nauseous feeling. 

FIT, raging. — a. Beat onions to a pulp and apply them, as a poul¬ 
tice, to the back or to the groin. It gives speedy ease in the most racking 
pain. b. Apply heated parsley. When a child has a fit place it in a hot 
"bath at once, and at the same time pour cold water on its head and face, 
or hold a sponge saturated with cold water, to its head. 

SAINT VITUS’S DANCE.—This disease is principally confined to chil¬ 
dren and youths, before the age of purberty. The causes are various, excite- 


442 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


ment, powerful emotion of the mind, overworking the brain, reading exciting 
novels, eating too much meat, fright, striking in of eruptions, self-pollu¬ 
tion, etc.— Treatment. Remove all causes of excitement, take away all 
books; and regulate the diet, making it more stimulating if it has been 
too low, and more vegetable and cooling if it has been too high. The 
patient should also have cheerful out-door exercise every day. If this 
treatment be not sufficient, regulate the bowels with some gentle physic, for 
a few days. Build up the nervous system by giving three oxide of zinc pills 
every day—sulphate of zinc will sometimes succeed when the oxide fails. 
If there is scrofula in the system, give iodide of zinc. To these remedies 
add the shower-bath once a day, beginning with tepid water and making it 
a little colder every day. If the shower-bath frightens the patient, substi¬ 
tute the sponge-bath. 

CRAMPS.— Treatment. If the attack occurs in the leg, tie a cord or 
handerchief tight around the leg above the affected muscle. If this fails to 
produce instant relief, rub the affected parts with spirits of camphor, pare¬ 
goric, or laudanum. If the cramp occurs in the stomach, place a warm 
mustard plaster over the affected part; then take one-fourth of a grain of 
morphine, to be repeated in half an hour if it does not afford relief sooner. 
The bowels, if confined, should be opened with an injection. 

NEURALGIA.—Acute attacks of this disease can be cured almost 
instantly by taking from one to four seeds of the common Jamestown weed 
(pronounced Jimpson ,) gathered after the plant ripens. The writer has 
taken five seeds at a dose, and experienced relief in twenty minutes. 
Chronic cases of ueuralgia may be cured by taking two or three doses per 
day, of one to three seeds each, for several weeks, at the same time regu¬ 
lating the diet and building up the system with iron tonics. The James¬ 
town weed and its seed are deadly poisons if taken in too large doses, and 
care must be exercised not to exceed the doses given above. 

SICK-HEAD ACHE.—Much sick-headache is caused by overloading the 
stomach—by indigestion. It may be relieved by drinking freely of warm 
water, whether it produces vomiting or not. If the feet are cold, warm 
them or bathe them in water as hot as you can bear it. Soda or ashes in 
the water will do good. If the pain is very severe, apply a cloth wrung out 
of hot water, to the head, pack the head as it were. To prevent it, let plain¬ 
ness, simplicity, and temperance preside at your table. In some cases 
medicine is necessary, but if the above is carried out, almost immediate 
relief is experienced. 

HICCOUGHS.— Treatment. Startle the person suffering by exciting 
surprise, fear or anger; or let a few small draughts of cold water be taken 
in quick succession, without breathing. If the stomach is sour, take a tea- 


MEDICAL. 


443 


spoonful of bicarbonate of soda, dissolved in half a tumbler of cold water. 
If there is wind on the stomach, take a few drops of the essence of pepper¬ 
mint, ether, or compound spirits of lavender. The most effectual remedy 
for common hiccoughs, is to press heavily upon the collar bones with the 
hands. 

SNEEZING—To prevent. —Rub the nose briskly between the thumb 
and forefinger. 

FAINTING.— Treatment. Lay the patient on his back, with the head 
low; give him fresh air instantly, sprinkle a little cold water over the face, 
and hold spirits of camphor, ether, hartshorn, or vinegar to the nose; also 
rub a little spirits of camphor on the forehead and about the nostrils. As 
soon as the patient can swallow, give a teaspoonful of compound spirits of 
lavender, if convenient, with ten drops of water of ammonia in it. Persons 
subject to fainting should wear loose clothing, avoid crowded places, bathe 
daily in cold water, and regulate the diet. By so doing they may cure the 
habit. 

VERTIGO— Dizziness of the head. —Ascertain the cause and re¬ 
move it, and the dizziness will disappear. If dyspepsia be the cause, eat 
lightly; if costiveness, open the bowels by eating coarse food, or by gentle 
physics. Take plenty of exercise, avoid coffee, late suppers, and ardent 
spirits; keep the feet warm and the head cool. 

NIGHTMARE.—Persons suffering from nightmare, so as to groan, 
scream, or call out, should be shaken, and they will instantly recover. To 
prevent this complaint, the diet should be simple and well-regulated, and 
plenty of out-door exercise should be taken. Avoid late, hearty suppers, 
and spend the evening in some agreeable amusement, so that the mind may 
be occupied with pleasant reflections upon retiring to rest. Persons subject 
to nightmare should not sleep upon the back, nor with the hands over the 
head. 

CATARRH.—Take the bark of sassafras root, dry and pound it, use it 
as a snuff, taking two or three pinches a day.—Or, snuff the nitrate of silver 
powder, a pinch at a time, once a day. The latter remedy will generally 
cure the worst cases. 

COLDS.—Take a large teaspoonful of flaxseed, with a quarter of an 
ounce of the extract of liquorice, and a quarter of a pound of sun rasins. 
Put it into two quarts of soft water, and let it simmer over a slow fire till it 
is reduced to one; then add to it a quarter of a pound of brown sugar 
candy, pounded; a tablespoonful of white wine vinegar or lemon-juice. 

Note. _The vinegar is best to be added only to that quantity you are going 

immediately to take; for if it be put into the whole, it is liable in a little 
while to grow flat. Drink a half pint on going to bed, and take a little 


444 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


when the cough is troublesome. This recipe generally cures the worst of 
colds in two or three days, and, if taken in time, may be said to be almost an 
infallible remedy. It is a sovereign balsamic cordial for the lungs, without 
the opening qualities which engender fresh colds on going out. It has been 
known to cure colds that have almost been settled into consumption, in less 
than three weeks. 

COUGH REMEDIES.—Dry the leaves of box-tree very well, and pow¬ 
der them small; and give the child of this fine powder, in its meat and 
drink, that it can be disguised in. It is excellent in that distemper 

b. Common sweet cider, boiled down to one-half, makes an excellent 
syrup for colds or coughs for children, it is pleasant to the taste, and will 
keep for a year in a cool cellar. In recovering from an illness, the system 
has a craving for some pleasant drink. This is found in cider which is 
placed on the fire as soon as made, and allowed to come to a boil, then 
cooled, put in casks, and kept in a cool cellar. 

c. The editor of the Baltimore Farmer and Gardener says, that the 
best remedy he ever tried in his family for a cough or cold, is a decoction of 
the leaves of a pine tree, sweetened with loaf-sugar, to be freely drunk 
warm when going to bed at night, and cold throughout the day. 

The following is a pleasant and most excellent remedy for a severe cold: 
Take half a pint of good apple vinegar, two or three large slices of onions, 
a tablespoonful of butter, sweetened with honey or white sugar, and place 
it over the fire until it boils; then inhale the steam through the mouth and 
nose, and sip a little of the mixture with a spoon. The feet should be 
bathed in warm salt-water at the same time; then go to bed and cover up 
warm, and in nine cases out of ten you will have no cold next morning. 

TONSILITIS.—Persons who have tonsilitis once are very apt to have it 
again, until the disease becomes chronic. There is no certain cure for it except 
to cut the tonsils off, and this must be done by a competent surgeon. The 
inflammation can sometimes be relieved by inhaling the steam from mlu- 
lein leaves and hot water. 

MUMPS.—In mild cases very little treatment is required. The face and 
neck should be kept warm, avoiding exposure to cold and damp, and warm 
infusions of balm, spearmint, or sage should be administered. It may be 
well to give four to six grains of Dover’s powders occasionally; or the com¬ 
pound powder of jalap if there be costiveness. In severe cases physic 
must be freely used, with applications of leeches and cooling lotions or poul¬ 
tices. Sweating should also be induced by the compound tincture of Vir¬ 
ginia snake-root, or by a vapor bath. 

CROUP.—The characteristics of this scourge of childhood are so well 
known to every parent that it is useless to describe them. It is a disease 


MEDICAL. 


445 


that generally attacks the patient in the night, and when the peculiar loud, 
and ringing cough, the sure indicator of its presence, is heard, no time is to 
be lost in giving relief to the little sufferer.— Treatment. Give an emetic^ 
consisting of two drachms of wine of ipecac, or if that be not convenient, 
anything else that will produce sickness of the stomach and vomiting. This, 
however, must not be too severe. A flax-seed poultice, bound around the 
neck, is very beneficial. If the child be large enough, let it inhale frequently 
the vapor of hot water and mullein leaves. Move the bowels with a dose 
of castor oil; and if convenient, throw a strong solution of nitrate of silver 
into the throat with a shower syringe, until the membrane is discharged.— 
The writer has known dangerous cases of croup cured by simply laying a 
leaf of dampened tobacco on the breast of the child, and allowing it to re¬ 
main until nausea and vomiting were produced.—The following is also said 
to be a quick and sure cure: Take a knife or grater, and shave or grate off 
in small particles about a teaspoonful of alum ; mix it with about twice its 
quantity of sugar, to make it palatable, and administer as quick as possible. 
It is claimed that this remedy will relieve a child of the croup in one min¬ 
ute. It is simple, quickly prepared, and could be tried while preparing to> 
administer other remedies.—Common cases of croup can be cured in a few 
minutes by swallowing half a tumblerful of strong salt water, either warm 
or cold. 

HOARSENESS.—Make a strong tea of horse-radish and yellow dock 
roots, sweeten with honey and drink freely. 

DIPHTHERIA.— Symptoms. —This disease generally begins with a slight 
stiffness or soreness of the neck, accompanied with a pricking sensation 
about the roots of the tongue. Generally, during the incipiency of the dis¬ 
ease, there is slight drowsiness and chilliness, followed by feverishness, or 
headache and aching of the limbs. The glands at the angles of the lower 
jaw are apt to be slightly swollen and tender, and one or both of the tonsils 
are usually red and swollen. Swallowing, in some cases, is painful, but not 
always so. Cases having the above symptoms are not usually dangerous,, 
and admit of successful treatment; but when an exudation having the ap¬ 
pearance of white, gray, or ash-colored patches, begins to appear on or near 
the tonsils, serious danger may be apprehended. This exudation takes the 
form of fibrous matter, and soon hardens into a leathery membrane, which 
increases in size by additions to its under surface, until it obstructs the breath¬ 
ing and strangles the patient.—- Treatment. Blisters, bleeding, purging, or 
anything that will reduce the system, must be rigidly avoided. The patient 
will need all the strength he can get. Bathe the inflamed parts with a 
strong solution of crystals of nitrate of silver, sixty to one hundred grains 
to an ounce of water. This can be done by fastening a soft sponge to the 


446 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


end of a stick or piece of whalebone, and having dipped it into the solu¬ 
tion, press the sponge gently upon the inflamed surface. Let this applica¬ 
tion be made about three times a day. Gargles may also be used to ad¬ 
vantage, if the patient be old enough. The following is an excellent gar¬ 
gle for this purpose: Chlorinated soda, one ounce; muriatic tincture of 
iron, half an ounce; water, six ounces; use every half hour. The diet 
should be nourishing and easily digested—as beef-tea, chicken-broth, and 
eggs, with wine, new milk, cream, arrowroot, etc. When the patient has 
reached a convalescent state, beefsteak, lamb, chicken, etc., should be eaten 
moderately.—It is said that diphtheria can be cured by the simple use of 
lemon juice. Gargle the throat freely with it, at the same time swallow¬ 
ing a portion, so as to reach all the affected parts. A French physician 
claims that he saved his own life with this pleasant remedy. This no doubt 
would be beneficial in the milder forms of the disease. 

DIPHTHERIA— Sulpher for. —Mr. John S. Wiles, a surgeon of Thorn- 
combe, Dorset, writes to the London Times that after two cases of malig¬ 
nant diphtheria out of some nine or ten he had been called to attend, had 
proved fatal, the mother of a sick child showed him an extract from an 
American paper concerning a. practitioner who used sulphur to cure the 
disease. Accordingly he used milk of sulphur for infants and flour of sul¬ 
phur for older children and adults, brought to a creamy consistence with 
glycerine; dose—a teaspoonful or more, according to age, three or four 
times a day, swallowed slowly, and application of the same to the nostrils 
with a sponge. Result: He did not lose a case there or elsewhere, and he 
succeeded in saving life when the affection had almost blocked the throat. 

WHOOPING-COUGH.— a . Take of sweet oil, garlic, onions, each a 
gill; simmer together half an hour; then add a glass of honey, a teaspoon¬ 
ful of paregoric, and a teaspoonful of tincture of camphor. Dose, one 
teaspoonful three or four times a day.— b. Take of elecampane, four ounces; 
honey, half a pound ; set it in a warm place until it forms a syrup. Dose, 
one teaspoonful three times a day.—A solution of nitric acid in water, sweet¬ 
ened until it is not quite so strong as lemon juice, and taken as a drink sev¬ 
eral times a day, is an excellent remedy. 

RATTLES in children.— Administer a small teaspoonful of powdered 
bloodroot in molasses, and if this does not afford speedy relief, repeat the 
dose in half an hour. 

PHTHISIC.—Take four ounces of hens’ fat, and with it simmer a small 
quantity of the root of skunk cabbage. Dose, one teaspoonful three times 
a day. 

ASTHMA.—The following remedies will greatly relieve asthma, but per¬ 
sons suffering from this serious complaint would do well to seek the advice 


MEDICAL* 


447 


of some competent physician: Ether or tincture of lobelia, two ounces, 
tincture of assafoetida, one ounce; laudanum, one ounce ; iodide of potas¬ 
sium, two ounces ; simple syrup, four ounces. Mix and take a dessert¬ 
spoonful every two hours. Smoking stramonium leaves is recommended as 
a good remedy; and also burning paper, dipped in a strong solution of nitrate 
of potash, and inhaling the smoke. 

BRONCHITIS.—Give warm flax-seed tea, or hot lemonade, at the same 
time soak the feet in hot water, and on retiring to bed, apply bottles of hot 
water to the feet and sides, to produce sweating. If there be costiveness, 
give a mild cathartic of rhubarb and magnesia, or salts and senna. If 
the case be severe, an active emetic should be administered, followed by full 
doses of tincture of veratrum veride. The atmosphere of the room should 
be kept warm and moist if there is difficulty in breathing. Control the 
cough by some simple cough syrup, such as recommended in whooping 
•cough. The diet should consist of toast-water, rice-water, and a solu¬ 
tion of gum arabic. 

PLEURISY".— Symptoms. —This disease generally begins with shiverings, 
which are succeeded by high fever, with a peculiarly hard pulse; a sharp, 
stabbing pain in the side, generally just below the nipple, but sometimes 
extending to the shoulder, arm-pit and back; hurried and interrupted breath¬ 
ing, with great pain in attempting to take a long breath, and a short, dry 
cough.— Treatment. Give a teaspoonful of compound tincture of Virginia 
snake-root every half hour, to produce free perspiration. It may be given 
.in infusion of catnip, balm, or pleurisy root; and at the same time a hot 
poultice of tansey or hops should be applied to the affected side. If this 
does not afford relief, give an emetic, and follow it with a physic, at the 
same time keeping up the perspiration with full doses of the tincture of 
veratrum. Dover’s powders, in six grain doses, should be given to quiet 
the patient and produce sleep and perspiration at the same time. The diet 
must be very light. 

PNEUMONIA.— Symptoms. —Pain in the side, difficulty in breathing, 
fever, dry cough at first, but soon accompanied by raising a thick, sticky, 
rusty-colored matter, composed of a mixture of phlegm and blood. As the 
disease progresses, this matter will become more tenacious, so that it will 
adhere to a vessel when turned upside down. There may also be some de¬ 
lirium.— Treatment. The treatment in this disease is similar to that in 
pleurisy. First give an emetic, and follow it with doses of compound tinc¬ 
ture of Virginia snake-root, to cause sweating; apply mustard plasters to 
the chest, but do not let them blister, and bottles of hot water to the sides. 
If the fever be high, give ten or twelve drops of the tincture of veratrum 
veride every hour. Remove costiveness by moderate doses of salts, and give 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


448 

slippery elm water, flax-seed tea, or lemonade, with a thin gruel of Indian 
meal or arrowroot. As the fever abates relieve the cough with some pleas¬ 
ant cough syrup, and allow the patient rest and quiet. 

JAUNDICE.— Treatment. If the liver is inactive, begin with an emetic. 
An infusion of thoroughwort, drank freely every day, is an excellent rem¬ 
edy. A drink of composed of five drops of muriatic acid, and three drops 
of nitric acid, dissolved in a tumbler of water and sweetened so as to 
render it palatable, will assist very much in the cure. Sponge the body all 
over every day with alkaline water, and take a warm bath twice a week, 
rubbing the skin briskly with a coarse towel afterward. If there should be 
great pain from passage of gallstones, large doses of opium or laudanum 
must be administered, with application of mustard poultice over the seat of 
the pain. Relieve the acidity of the stomach by drinking at a single 
draught, a tumblerful of hot water, in whicn a large teaspoonful of bicar¬ 
bonate of soda has been dissolved. 

DYSPEPSIA.—The principal treatment for dyspepsia should be hygienic. 
Food should be eaten only in such quantities as the stomach can readily 
digest, no matter how small, and it must be well chewed. Nothing must 
be eaten that disagrees with the stomach in the slightest degree. The diet 
should consist almost entirely of bread made from unbolted wheat-flour, 
and boiled cracked wheat, with milk or molasses. This diet rigidly adhered 
to for a few months, with proper attention to keeping the bowels regular, 
and a proper amount of daily exercise, will cure the worst case of dyspepsia. 
The following recipes are also recommended for cases of long standing: 

a. Take the bark of white poplar root, boil it thick, add a little spirit, 
and then lay it on the stomach. 

b. Take wintergreen and black cherry-tree bark and yellow dock; put 
into two quarts of water; boil down to three pints; take two or three 
glasses a day 

HEARTBURN.—A teaspoonful of soda, magnesia, or chalk, taken in a 
glass of cold water, will generally give immediate relief. Lime-water, or 
fluid magnesia will answer the same purpose. If there is wind on the 
stomach, with acidity, a teaspoonful of the aromatic spirit of ammonia, will 
give relief. Persons who are subject to the complaint should strengthen 
the stomach by the course of diet recommended in dyspepsia. 

VOMITING.—This is generally cured by treating the disease which 
induces it, but it may be alleviated by any of the following remedies: Put 
a mustard plaster on the pit of the stomach, and swallow a teaspooful of 
good vinegar immediately after vomiting, and repeat the dose as often as 
the vomiting occurs. Pour boiling water on a piece of camphor, and take 
one dessert-spoonful every ten minutes until the vomiting ceases. Strong 


MEDICAL. 


449 


coffee, with sugar or milk, will often act like a charm. A little brandy,, 
champagne, tincture of ginger, paregoric, or cherry-brandy, will often pro¬ 
duce the desired result. The vomiting of children can often be arrested by 
wetting a cloth with laudanum and laying it on the pit of the stomach. 

SEA-SICKNESS.—This complaint can be controlled, to a great extent, 
by the same remedies suggested for vomiting. But perhaps the best known 
remedy is chloroform, taken in doses of from forty to eighty drops, suspend.- 
ed in water by a little gum-arabic. 

COLIC.—Common cases of colic may be relieved almost instantly by 
swallowing two or three tablespoonfuls of good whisky or brandy in a little- 
hot water. With some persons a teaspoonful of tincture of ginger, in warm 
water, will do better. If these simple remedies do not bring relief, an emetic 
should be given, followed by a dose of salts, or castor oil, and a mustard 
plaster placed over the stomach. 

COLIC, Bilious. —This is a dangerous disease, and requires energetic 
measures. It is characterized by violent paroxismal pains, principally in 
the region of the navel, thirst and heat, and a discharge of bilious matter 
from the stomach. The head will be hot and the feet cold, while the whole 
body will be covered with cold sweat.— Treatment. Give an active purga¬ 
tive, consisting of two tablespoonfuls of equal parts of castor oil and 
spirits of turpentine. If that fails to act, give a drop of croton oil, done 
up in a crumb of bread. Cover the entire abdomen with a mustard plas¬ 
ter. A dose of camphor every fifteen minutes will aid in relieving the pain. 
Hot bricks, or bottles of hot water, should be placed at the feet and back, 
to promote perspiration. 

COLIC, Painters’. —When this disease has become chronic, take, two 
or three times a day, a dose consisting of the following mixture: Fifteen 
grains of alum, two of aloes, two of jalap, and four of Dover’s powders. If 
there is paralysis in the muscles of the arm, add one-sixteenth of a grain of 
strychnine to the above. Acute attacks of this disease should be treated 
with about the same remedies as those suggested for bilious colic. 

COSTIVENESS.—Habitual costiveness may be increased by medicines,, 
and they should not be resorted to except in the last extremity. The com¬ 
plaint can generally be cured by regulating the diet. Eat bread made from; 
unbolted flour, cracked wheat, and fresh vegetables, such as peas, beans,, 
potatoes, and squashes; also plenty of ripe fruit. Make an attempt to evac¬ 
uate the bowels regularly every morning, just after breakfast; whether you 
succeed or not, the habit must not be abandoned—it will eventually result 
in good, and nine times out of ten will cure the worst cases of costiveness. 

PILES.— Symptoms.— Usually there is a feeling of weight and weakness, 
in the lower part of the back and loins, with a painful itching about the- 

28 


450 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


anus. On going to stool, a burning, cutting pain is generally experi¬ 
enced. If it be bloody piles, the tumors will bleed at every motion of the 
bowels. The causes of this disease are numerous, such as habitual cos¬ 
tiveness, straining at stools, riding much on horseback, sitting a great deal, 
tight lacing, highly seasoned food, etc.— Treatment. Costiveness must be 
prevented by some gentle cathartic, but active purging will do great mis¬ 
chief. The bowels should be regularly moved once a day, if possible, and for 
this purpose pills made of extract of thorough wort are recommended. The 
food must be of a laxative nature, such as corn-bread, rye pudding, bread 
of unbolted wheat flour, buckwheat cakes, potatoes, broths, plenty of ripe 
fruit, and a little tender beef or mutton once a day. For local applications, 
use one of the following ointments: one handful each of switch hazel bark, 
white oak bark, and sweet-apple tree bark, boiled together in a pint of 
water until it is reduced two-thirds. Then strain and add two ounces of 
lard, and simmer away the water, stirring occasionally, before and after re¬ 
moving from the fire. Or, two ounces of lard and one drachm of flowers 
-of sulphur, mixed and rubbed between two plates of lead until they are well 
blackened. 

DIARRHOEA.—Take, every hour, until it operates, a tablespoonful of the 
compound syrup of rheubarb and potassa, with a little paregoric or essence 
of peppermint. If there should be nausea and vomiting, take a few drops 
laudanum, and put a mustard poultice on the stomach. Ten drops of laud¬ 
anum will generally relieve griping, if there should be any.—The following 
recipes are excellent in this complaint: a. Take of opium, gum guaiacum, 
camphor, each one part; gum kino and ipecac, each half a part; mix into 
common-sized pills. Dose, from one to four per day; or, b. Take pre¬ 
pared chalk, two drachms ; loaf sugar, one drachm ; add one ounce of gum- 
arabic, eight ounces of water, oil of lavender, one drachm; laudanum, 
thirty drops. Shake it well when you use it. Dose, one tablespoonful every 
Four; oftener if necessary.— c. Take half a pint of brandy and stir it with 
an iron nearly red-hot, previously adding loaf-sugar enough to make it 
agreeably sweet. A spoonful or two to be taken two or three times a day. 

DIARRHCEA, Chronic. —In this disease a sponge-bath must be 
taken daily, and the skin rubbed well afterward. Then take a teaspoonful 
of brandy, or blackberry brandy, in a little sweetened water, several times 
a day, and in the meantime let the diet be very light. One of the simplest 
and best remedies is to take no nourishment, for a long time, except milk 
with a little lime-water in it. In cases where there is great debility, quinine 
pills will be beneficial. 

CHOLERA MORBUS.— Symptoms. Sickness and distress at the stomach, 
succeeded by violent gripings, vomiting and copious discharges from the 


MEDICAL. 


451 


bowels. These discharges are a thin, whitish or greenish fluid. The 
nausea and pain are intense, and continue almost without intermission.— 
Treatment . First cleanse the stomach by giving large draughts of warm 
water. Then apply a mustard poultice over the stomach and liver, and give 
a tablespoonful of brandy or whisky, with fifteen drops of laudanum If 
the stomach does not retain it, repeat the dose in half an hour. Encour¬ 
age the patient to resist the inclination to stool, and after each paroxysm of 
vomiting, let him rinse his mouth with vinegar, and swallow a little, to 
alleviate sickness of the stomach. Hot bricks or mustard applied to the 
feet will do much good. The following is also recommended: One grain 
of morphine and thirty of bicarbonate of soda, dissolved in an ounce of 
sweet tincture of rheubarb. Dose, a teaspoonful every half hour. 

CHOLERA.— Symptoms. —Derangement of the digestive organs, rumb¬ 
ling in the bowels, pain in the loins or knees, twitching of the calves of the 
legs, thirst, and a slight diarrhoea. These are the premonitory symptoms, 
and are soon followed by vomiting, and purging a thin, colorless fluid, 
closely resembling rice-water; by severe cramps in the calves of the legs, 
which soon attack the bowels and stomach. The pulse becomes feeble, 
though sometimes full and hurried, the tongue is pale and moist, the breath¬ 
ing hurried, with distress about the heart, and the secretion of urine entirely 
stopped.— Treatment. Persons are apt to neglect the first stage of this 
terrible disease, and therein lies the greatest danger. When there is 
cholera in the vicinity, no diarrhoea, no matter how slight, should be per¬ 
mitted to go unhealed. Twenty drops of laudanum, repeated every three 
hours, will generally stop the diarrhoea. Morphine or opium are also 
suitable remedies. The patient should retire to bed and remain as quiet 
as possible, lying on his back. When vomiting, purging and cramps set in, 
energetic treatment must be resorted to at once. Let brandy be given 
freely, with twenty-five drops of laudanum, or large doses of morphine, 
which is better. The following is a good recipe for cholera: Camphor, 2 
drachms; chloroform, 1 drachm, mixed well with the yelk of an egg ; then 
add tincture of opium, 1 ounce; aromatic spirits of ammonia, 1 ounce; 
and give a teaspoonful every hour until relief is obtained. One-half grain 
of morphine, inserted under the skin of a patient suffering from chol¬ 
era, will effect a cure when all other remedies fail. Syringes made for this 
purpose can be procured at any drug store. During treatment for chol¬ 
era the surface of the body must be kept warm by constant friction, and the 
application of hot bricks, baths of hot water, mustard poultices, etc. 

DYSENTERY, BLOODY FLUX.— Symptoms. —Loss of appetite, nau¬ 
sea, costiveness, shivering, hot skin, quick pulse; followed by an almost 
constant desire to stool, attended with griping pains in the bowels, which 


452 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


extend apparently through the marrow of the bones along the legs to the 
knees. The evacuations are small, lumpy, and of a reddish color, consist¬ 
ing of mucous and blood. At first these discharges have but little odor, 
but as the disease advances they become very offensive.— Treatment. First, 
give a large draught of warm water, to produce vomiting and cleanse the 
stomach; then, every three hours, give a tablespoonful of equal parts of 
spirits of turpentine and castor oil, until a free action of the bowels is ob¬ 
tained. Three or four drops of laudanum should be added, to relieve the 
griping. A mustard plaster laid over the bowels will have a good effect. 
The object of the treatment in this disease is to secure the free action of the 
bowels, and astringents must therefore be avoided. The patient should lie 
on his back, and resist, as far as possible, the constant desire to stool. 
An injection of starch will often aid in producing a healthy action of the 
bowels; and the drink should consist of flax-seed or slippery elm tea, in 
moderate quantities.—In chronic dysentery the treatment must be princi¬ 
pally dietetic, consisting of wheat flour porridge, boiled milk, boiled rice, 
etc., with a little tender beef once a day. In addition to this mild astrin¬ 
gents will be necessary. 

WORMS.—For a child one to two years old, give ten to twenty drops of 
the following mixture every three hours: Spirits of turpentine, half an 
ounce; castor oil, one ounce; worm-seed oil, one ounce. In two days give 
a brisk physic, and the worms will be expelled.—The following is a good 
preparation also: Pinkroot and senna, each half an ounce; bitartrate of 
potassa, one drachm; pulverized jalap, half a drachm; cardamon seeds, 
half a drachm ; extract of liquorice, two drachms. Mix and add half a pint 
of boiling-water; let it steep half an hour, and give a tablespoonful or two 
at night, until the worms are expelled. 

TAPE WORMS.—A sure remedy for tape worms is pumpkin seeds, 
bruised and steeped in water, and drank freely for several days. This will 
cure the worst case of tape worms. 

SUPPRESSION OF URINE.—Place the patient in a warm bath for fif¬ 
teen or twenty minutes, and then apply mustard plasters over the kidneys. 
The bowels should be opened by a dose of Epsom salts, compound powder 
of jalap, or castor oil. Ordinary cases of suppression of urine, in fevers, 
etc., can be cured by drinking freely of tea made of watermelon seed; flax¬ 
seed tea is good, also. 

GRAVEL.— a. Make a strong tea of the low herb called heart’s ease, 
and drink freely.— b. Make of Jacob’s ladder a strong tea, and drink freely. 

INABILITY TO HOLD THE URINE.—Children who suffer from 
this disorder should be restrained in their propensity to drink largely. They 
should also be required to make water just before retiring to bed, and 


MEDICAL. 


453 


aroused again later in the night for the same purpose. The skin should be 
washed all over every day with cool water, and briskly rubbed with a coarse 
towel. Spirits of turpentine, given in small doses, will generally have a 
good effect. 

DIABETES.— a. Take of loaf-sugar, resin and alum, equal parts, and 
take as much as^Jie point of a pen-knife will contain three times a day.— b. 
Steep one ounce of ginger in one pint of good wine, and drink two or three 
glasses a day. 

SYPHILIS.—This is an infectious disease, and is generally contracted 
during sexual intercourse with an infected person. But it may be con¬ 
tracted in many other ways, for the pus or matter of a syphilitic sore is as 
active and virulent as the germ of small-pox, and will reproduce the dis¬ 
ease whenever introduced into the blood of a healthy person. It is fre¬ 
quently contracted by visiting public water closets, or drinking at public 
fountains; and it has even been communicated by a kiss. A scratch from 
the finger-nail of an infected person may introduce the poison into the sys¬ 
tem of a healthy one, and the disease is often contracted by sleeping in the 
same bed with a person suffering from it in some one of its various forms. 
No disease that humanity is heir to is more terrible in its effects than this, 
and considering the many ways in which it may accidently be communicated 
to a perfectly innocent person, every one should know what to do in case 
of an attack.— Treatment. If the treatment is begun in time, the disease can 
nearly always be arrested without difficulty. The first indication of its pres¬ 
ence is a £mall, elevated, itching ulcer or ulcers, at the point of contact with 
the infectious matter, and as the disease is nearly always contracted dur¬ 
ing illicit intercourse, these ulcers usually appear on the private parts. As 
soon as the ulcers appear they must be burnt out, root and branch, with 
caustic. For this purpose caustic potassa, potassa with lime, or painless 
caustic may be used, and as soon as the desired object is accomplished, 
the wound should be bathed in vinegar and water, to neutralize the caustic. 
The surest remedy is to bum the ulcers out with a hot iron, but this should 
never be attempted by the patient himself, nor any but an experienced sur¬ 
geon, for it might result in great bodily injury and accomplish no good. 
After the sore has been cauterized, a piece of lint, dipped in a solution of 
one drachm of opium to four ounces of water, should be laid upon it, and 
the entire infected surface covered with another piece of lint soaked in 
tepid water, and that covered with oiled silk, to exclude the air. This 
opium dressing must be repeated night and morning, until the sores heal. 
For internal treatment, take two pills, night and morning, of thfe following 
mixture: One-half drachm compound extract of colocynth ; blue pill, eight 
grains ; mix and divide into eight pills; followed by a tablespoonful of two 


454 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


ounces Epsom salts, one grain tartar emetic, and one pint spearmint water, 
well mixed. This treatment, continued three or four days, will usually effect 
a cure; but if it does not, the patient should at once consult a competent 
physician, and be governed by his instructions. 

GONORRHCEA.—Mix fifteen grains each of acetate of lead and sul¬ 
phate of zinc, with six and a half ounces of rose-water, and inject into the 
urethra, three times a day, with a glass syringe. At the same time use 
internally, tincture veratrum, twenty drops; gelseminum, one ounce; water, 
four ounces. Dose, a teaspoonful every two hours. The following injec¬ 
tion should be used once or twice a day after the disease has begun to pass 
away: Carbolic acid, ten grains; tannic acid, fifteen grains; water, four 
ounces. 

SELF-POLLUTION, or masturbation. —This is a vice that prevails 
extensively among young persons of both sexes, and when persisted in, it 
always leads to serious results, such as nervous disorders, hysterics, con¬ 
sumption, insanity, etc. Parents should warn their children against its 
terrible effects, and their advice and counsel will generally be sufficient to 
prevent the vile habit. When once acquired, it can be broken up like' any 
other bad habit, by a little exercise of the will. Medicines are not needed, 
but persons addicted to the habit must be warned of its evil effects, and 
persuaded to abandon it. 

HYSTERICS.—The nervous spasms of hysterics can be stopped by 
pouring cold water on the head, face, or limbs of the patient. The gen¬ 
eral treatment of the complaint is very simple, consisting of plain, whole¬ 
some diet, bathing, exercise and the cultivation of self-reliant habits. The 
disease can be controlled, to a great extent, by force of will, and persons 
subject to it should school themselves in the art of self-government. 

HYSTERICS.—Take the leaves of motherwort and thorough wort, and 
the bark of poplar root, equal parts, mix them in molasses, and take four of 
them when the first symptoms of the disorder are felt, and they will effectu¬ 
ally check it. 

FALLING OF THE WOMB.—Simple injections of cold water into the 
front passage of the womb, alternated occasionally with an infusion of white 
oak bark, will generally effect a cure in this disorder. But if it is of long 
standing, the womb will have to be put back in its place, and sustained 
there by mechanical means, until the muscles and ligaments recover their 
strength sufficiently to hold it. 

PAINFUL MENSTRUATION.—In cases of painful menstruation, 
twenty drops of laudanum, in a wine-glassful of tepid water, injected into 
the bowels, will usually relieve the pain. The neck of the womb should 
also be rubbed with an ointment composed of one-half drachm extract bel- 


MEDICAL. 


455 


ladonna, mixed with half an ounce of lard. In cases where the membrane 
is thrown off in lumps or fragments, accompanied by great pain, take two 
teaspoonfuls of liquid acetate of ammonia in a teaspoonful of cold water, 
three or four times a day, while the pain lasts. 

NIPPLES —Sore.— Spread a plaster of fir balsam, and apply it to the- 
breast after the child has nursed. 

THRUSH IN CHILDREN. —Treatment.— Wash the mouth with 
slippery elm water several times a day; or, if the case be severe, put a 
little pulverized borax, mixed with white sugar or honey, on the child’s 
tongue three or four times a day. 

TEETHING OF CHILDREN.—Nature induces children, when teeth¬ 
ing, to seek some hard substance to press the gums upon, to aid the teeth, 
in pushing through. In addition to furnishing them some little play¬ 
thing to bite, the gums should be lanced as soon as they are swollen by the 
teeth pushing them up. This will often prevent serious and even fatal 
diseases of the brain and nervous system, and greatly relieve the pain of 
the little sufferer. If there be suppression of the urine, give the child two 
or three tablespoonfuls of strong watermelon seed tea, every two hours, 
until the kidneys act. 

SUMMER COMPLAINT OF CHILDREN.— Symptoms.— Profuse 
diarrhoea, the stools being thin and light colored, or sometimes green or 
yellow; the stomach becomes irritable, rejecting everything with violence, 
and in some cases there will be vomiting and purging.— Treatment. If the 
child be in the city, it should be removed to the country, if possible, where 
it can get plenty of cool, fresh air. If this cannot be done, keep it in a 
large, cool room, and take it often into the fresh air during clear weather. 
Bathe it daily in warm or tepid water, and if weaned, let its food be 
tapioca, arrow-root, rice-flower, and milk—the latter must be fresh and 
from one cow. If the child is nursing, confine it entirely to the breast. Gum- 
water, or rennet whey, with a little gum arabic, should be given as a drink. 
To relieve vomiting, give ten drops of the following mixture every half 
hour: i drachm champhor, i ounce sulphuric ether. 

SUMMER COMPLAINT.—Six drops of laudanum to half a tumbler 
full of rice-water; half a tumbler of the mixture to be taken every three 
or four hours. This simple remedy may be given to infants, children, or 
at any period of life, and has never failed to give immediate relief; and, 
if persevered in for a few days, it invariably effects a cure, however vio¬ 
lent the disorder. 

TYPHOID FEVER.—Quinine is a good remedy in this disease, and it 
may be given in large doses. Give the patient plenty of good, fresh air, 
and wash the skin several times a day with cool or tepid water, as may be 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


.456 

most agreeable to the patient. Restrain diarrhoea by small doses of burnt 
brandy, or small and repeated doses of Dover’s powders; and prevent 
costiveness by giving gentle doses of salts or castor oil. The bowels must 
be kept regular, both extremes being avoided. Reduce the fever by giv¬ 
ing from five to ten drops of the tincture of veratrum veride every hour; 
and if there is severe and constant pain in the head, the hair should be cut 
short, and the head bathed frequently in cold water. Very weak old hyson 
tea makes an excellent wash for the mouth. 

BILIOUS FEVER.—First give an emetic, and follow it with a mild ca¬ 
thartic. Sponge the body all over, several times a day, with cool or tepid 
water, and give cooling drinks. Two scruples of cream of tartar, in a quart 
of water, is an excellent drink in this complaint. The patient should also 
have ice-water to drink, or he may hold a small lump of ice in his mouth. 
To reduce the fever, give five to ten drops tincture of veratrum veride every 
two hours. During intermissions of the fever, quinine should be admin¬ 
istered. 

GOUT.—Take a teaspoonful of the following mixture three times a day, 
until relief is afforded : Wine of colchicum root, half ounce, magnesia one 
scruple, sulphate of morphia, one grain, peppermint water, one and a half 
ounces. Bathe the inflamed parts often in a solution of bicarbonate of soda 
in tepid water, keep the bowels regular, and drink freely every day of good, 
strong coffee. 

CONGESTIVE FEVER.—Should be treated the same as bilous fever, 
and when the patient begins to recover, let him have a light, nutritious diet, 
with out-door exercise, and a mild tonic two or three times a day. 

FEVER SORES.— a. Take of hoarhound, balm, sarsaparilla, loaf sugar, 
aloes, gum camphor, honey, spikenard, spirits of turpentine, each one 
ounce. Dose, one tablespoonful, three mornings, missing three; and for a 
wash, make a strong tea of sumach, washing the affected parts frequently, 
and keeping the bandage well wet.— b. Take two and a half drachms of blue 
vitriol, three drachms of alum, six drachms of loaf sugar, and put them 
into a pint of good vinegar, adding three tablespoonfuls of honey. This is 
an excellent wash for fever sores and scrofulous humors. 

CHILLS AND FEVER.—First clear the bowels with some suitable ca¬ 
thartic—this should be done immediately after the fever succeeding the first 
chill subsides. Then give quinine, in three grain doses, every three hours, 
giving the last dose at least two hours before the time for the next chill. 
When the disease is broken, continue to take a little quinine every day 
until after the ninth day. Persons subject to chills and fever should avoid 
the hot sun, and the damp evening and morning air. The following is an 
excellent chill remedy It should be taken every hour, a wine-glassful at a 


MEDICAL. 


457 


time, until the disease is broken : Twenty grains quinine, ten grains sub¬ 
carbonate of iron, and one pint diluted gin or port wine, well mixed. Per¬ 
sons who cannot take quinine would do well to use the following mixture ; 
Two ounces Peruvian bark, one ounce wild cherry-tree bark, one drachm 
cinnamon, one teaspoonful powdered capsicum, one ounce sulphur, and 
two quarts of port wine. Let it stand twenty-four hours, and take a wine- 
glassful every two hours. This will cure any case of chills. 

RHEUMATISM.— a. One gill of alcohol, one of beef’s-gall, one of 
spirits of turpentine, one of sweet oil, and four ounces of camphor gum. 
Put them all in a bottle and shake it up; use it two or three times a day, a 
.teaspoonful at a time. Apply it to the parts affected before the fire. It is 
also good for frost-bites. 

b. Peel off the outside bark of the alder, scrape off the green bark that 
is under it, and stew in lard till it is crisp. This is a most valuable salve, 
and of positive efficacy in cases of rheumatism, burns, corns, etc. 

Hop poultices applied to the affected joints will generally afford relief 
from the pain of rheumatism. It will also afford great relief to bathe the 
joint, just before retiring to bed, with hot sweet oil, and then bind cotton¬ 
batting upon it and let it remain all night. 

SCROFULA.—This disease requires special attention to the general 
health. The patient must have a simple, nourishing diet, and one that will 
keep the bowels open and regular, such as fresh meats, cooked rare, poul¬ 
try, soups, milk, hominy, and plenty of wholesome vegetables. For internal 
treatment nothing is better than to dissolve two scruples of iodide of potas¬ 
sium and one of iodine in two tablespoonfuls of water, and give ten drops 
three times a day, just before meals. Give, also, three times a day, twenty- 
five drops iodide of iron, in a little water. Bathe the swellings or tumors 
several times a day, in a strong solution of soda and water, and if they 
become inflamed apply poultices of powdered slippery elm and bay-berry 
in equal parts. When ulcers have formed, wash them clean with castile 
soap-suds two or three times a day, and dress them with a salve made of 
beeswax and olive oil; or, if the ulcers are indolent, use red iodide of 
mercury ointment instead. Flannel or silk should be worn next to the skin, 
summer and winter; and the entire body should be washed every day in 
a solution of saleratus and water, and rubbed dry with a coarse towel after¬ 
ward. 

SCURVY.—Persons who eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit, will 
rarely have the scurvy; and these are good remedies in case of an attack 
of the disease. Potatoes, scraped and eaten raw, will cure scurvy. Vin¬ 
egar is also an excellent remedy. Take three ounces of nitre and dissolve 
it in one quart of good vinegar. Dose, one table-spoonful, if the stomach 


453 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


will bear it; if not, take less. Or flour of sulphur, two parts ; cream of 
tartar, one part. Four large teaspoonfuls to be taken every morning in 
milk or treacle. Wash the gums in a solution of equal parts of tincture of 
myrrh, catechu, and Peruvian bark. 

TEETH, To clean. —Charcoal and honey mixed together and used as a 
dentifrice, will whiten the teeth with a few applications. 

BOILS.—It is not desirable, in the treatment of boils, to drive them 
back, for if that is done they are apt to poison the system and cause worse 
disorders. They should be poulticed and brought to a head as quickly as 
possible. Make a poultice of ginger and flour, and lay it on the boil. 
This will soon draw it to a head. A poultice of bread and milk is excel¬ 
lent. A piece of fat bacon or pork laid on a boil will bring it to a head in 
a few days. A poultice of honey and flour is also very good. Boils 
treated by any of the above means will not need lancing. If they con¬ 
tinue to come out in successive crops, cleanse the system by taking alter¬ 
ative medicines, or repeated doses of bicarbonate of soda. 

HUMORS.—Take saffron and seneka snakeroot equal parts; make a 
strong tea; drink one-half pint per day, and this will drive out all humors 
from the system. 

PROUD FLESH, To remove. —Pulverize loaf-sugar very fine, and apply 
it to the part affected. This is a new and easy remedy, and is said to 
remove it entirely without pain. 

CARBUNCLES.—These generally require lancing, but unless very 
malignant, they can be cured by persistent poulticing. An oat-meal poul¬ 
tice, either before or atfer lancing, is very good. A weak solution of lunar 
caustic is an excellent wash to be used after the sore has opened. Quinine,, 
or a tincture of Peruvian bark, should be taken during recovery, to strengthen 
and tone the system. 

ULCER.—Boil the leaves of the walnut tree in soft water, and fre¬ 
quently wash the sore with it, keeping a cloth wet with the wash on the 
parts all the time. 

ULCERS, Inward. —Take of the bark of sassafras root, two ounces; 
blood-root, gum myrrh, winter bark and aloes, each one ounce, and two* 
ounces of colt’s-foot; steep them together in two quarts of rum, and when 
cool, drink one glass every morning before eating. 

BURNS or scalds.— a. Burn the inside sole of an old shoe to ashes, 
and sprinkle the ashes on the affected parts. 

b. Spread a plaster of Turner’s cerate, and apply it to the wound twice 
a day. 

c. Beat an apple with salad oil until it is a poultice, pretty soft ; bind 
it on the part, and as it dries, lay on fresh. You must be sure to pare. 


MEDICAL. 


459 


core and beat your apple well, for fear of breaking the skin of the burn. 
But if the skin be off, there is nothing in nature so sure to take out the fire. 
Raw cotton, spread out thin, and applied to a burn, is a good dressing. 

BLISTERS, on the feet.— Occasioned by walking, are cured by draw¬ 
ing a needleful of worsted thread through them; clip it off at both ends, 
and leave it till the skin peels away. 

GUN-SHOT WOUNDS.—The bullet or shot must always be removed, 
if they can be felt, either with the hand or probe. If allowed to remain in 
the flesh, the lead may poisen the blood, or the ball may change its position 
and cause great suffering and even loss of life. During the first two or 
three days, the wound should be kept covered with cloths dampened with 
cold water, to keep down inflammation and fever. After suppuration 
begins, ointment and poultices should be applied, and the wound kept 
clean by washing frequently with tepid water. 

BITES AND STINGS OF INSECTS.—The best applications for the 
poisoned bites and stings of mosquitoes, spiders, bees, wasps, etc., are 
strong brine, hartshorn, sugar of lead, laudanum, tincture of iodine, or 
tincture of arnica. Any of these applications will neutralize the poison and 
remove the pain. 

BITES OF SERPENTS.—Every person should know what to do in case 
of a bite from a serpent, for the application of the remedy must immediately 
follow the bite, to prevent the poison from being disseminated through the 
system; and as wounds of this character are generally received in the 
country, remote from medical aid, the remedies must be of the simplest 
character. If the bite is in a limb, as is generally the case, instantly 
bind a cord or handkerchief, as tight as it can be drawn around the limb 
above the wound; then wash the wound clean and suck the poison out 
with the mouth. This must not be done, however, unless the teeth are 
sound and the mouth free from sores or ulcers. A more certain remedy is to 
cut out a piece of flesh surrounding the wound, and then sere the cut with 
a hot iron, or apply caustic potash to it. If within reach of medicines, 
saturate lint or batting with a mixture composed of iodine, thirty grains; 
iodide of potassium, thirty grains; water, one ounce, and apply it to the 
wound, and keep it wet with the mixture until a cure is effected, which will 
be in a few hours, at farthest. Common wild purslane, beaten into a pulp 
and applied as a poultice to a snake bite, is a certain and speedy remedy. 
Also the leaves of the white walnut or butternut tree, applied in the same 
way. These remedies are employed by the Indians of the West, who 
rarely experience any serious results from the bites of serpents. 

If bitten by a rattlesnake, the surest and quickest antidote is whisky or 
gin, taken in large quantities. When the poison has begun to take effect, 
the patient can hardly drink enough to produce intoxication. 


460 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


SPRAINS AND BRUISES.—Mix equal parts of beef-gall and vinegar; 
apply it often to the parts injured, and dry it by the fire. 

SWELLING— From a bruise, to prevent. —Immediately apply a cloth, 
five or six fold, dipped in cold water and new dipped when it grows warm. 

RUPTURE.—Make a plaster of the yolk of three eggs, mixed with a 
gill of brandy; simmer together and use it as a plaster; at the same 
time drink freely of white oak bark tea, and keep up the rupture with a 
good truss. 

WHITE SWELLING.—This disease usually attacks the knee-joint; 
sometimes the hip, ankle, or elbow. It begins with stiffness, slight swell¬ 
ing, and a severe, penetrating pain in the joint. The pain is greatly aggra¬ 
vated by the slightest movement. These symptoms are soon followed by 
increased swelling and suppuration, the matter being discharged from dif¬ 
ferent openings or ulcers. The bones become affected, and if the disease 
is not arrested, the patient will die. The worst form of white swelling can¬ 
not be cured, and the limb must be amputated to save the patient’s life ; 
but the disease, generally, can be governed by proper treatment. The 
stomach and bowels should be cleansed, the former with an emetic, and the 
latter with a cathartic, and this should be followed with tonics and gentle 
alteratives to keep the bowels open. The patient must have a generous 
diet, and whatever is calculated to build up the general health. For ex¬ 
ternal treatment apply an oatmeal and bran poultice, mixed with a little 
finely pulverized charcoal, cayenne pepper, and salt, and if the pain be 
very great, sprinkle a few drops of laudanum on the poultice. 

FELON.— a. It is said that a poultice of onions applied morning, noon 
and night, for three or four days, will cure a felon. No matter how bad the 
case, lancing will be unnecessary if the poultice is applied. The remedy 
is a sure, safe, and speedy one. 

b. A poultice made of equal parts of slippery elm bark, ground flax¬ 
seed, poke root, and lobelia seeds, mixed with hot lye, is an excellent ap¬ 
plication for a felon. It should be changed twice a day. It will greatly 
relieve the pain of a felon to carry the arm in a sling, which prevents the 
blood from settling to the affected member. 

WEN.— a. Take clean linen rags; burn them on a pewter plate, wipe 
off the oil on lint; and lay the lint on the wen; it will soon drop out of 
itself.— b. Take equal parts of alum and salt; simmer them together, and 
wash the parts three or four times a day.— c. The following has proved to 
be effectual: Make a very strong brine, dip in a piece of flannel two or three 
times doubled, and apply it to the wen; keep it constantly wet, night and 
day, until suppuration takes place. 

CANCER.—If applied in time, the following remedy will cure a cancer; 


MEDICAL. 


461 


Burn the inner bark of the common red oak to ashes, from which make a 
strong ley, and boil it down to the consistency of thick molasses, and apply 
it as a plaster twice a day to the sore. It will kill the tumor and cause it 
to drop out by the roots. At the same time drink freely of a tea composed 
as follows: A handful of winter-green, root and branch, and two ounces of 
sulphur to a quart of water. 

BUNIONS.—Remove the pressure from the affected part, keep the foot 
elevated on a chair or stool, and apply poultices to keep down inflammation. 

SORES— Old and inveterate. —Take copperas, white vitriol, rock salt, 
linseed oil, each two ounces, and eight ounces of molasses; boil them all to¬ 
gether over a slow fire, and when cool, half an ounce of the oil of vitriol, 
four ounces of the spirits of turpentine, and two ounces of the oil of tar. 
Mix all well together, and the salve is fit for use. 

NECK— Stiff. —Take two parts sweet oil and one part hartshorn • 
shaken well and corked very tight. Rub well. 

NECK— Criss in. —As soon as you find your neck stiff or turned to one 
side by the contraction of nerves, apply over the place diseased a piece of 
black oil-cloth, with the right side to the skin, and then with a thick hand¬ 
kerchief tie up the neck; in a short time the part will grow moist, and by 
leaving it thus during the night or through the day, the pain will be removed. 

EYES— Inflamed. —Pour boiling water on elder-flowers, and steep them 
like tea; when cold, put three or four drops of laudanum into a small glass 
of the elder-tea, and let the mixture run into the eyes two or three times a 
day, and the eyes will become perfectly strong in the course of a week. 

EYES— Weeping. —Wash the eyes in chamomile tea night and morning. 

EYES— Stye. —If the case is severe, apply a poultice, and open the swell¬ 
ing as soon as it begins to point. When the discharges cease, apply a little 
diluted nitrate of mercury ointment, on retiring to bed, for two or three 
nights. If styes continue to form, cleanse and tone up the system with al¬ 
teratives and tonics. 

For a common stye, the following is a good remedy : Bathe the eye fre¬ 
quently with warm water until the stye breaks; then rub the edge of the 
eye-lid with an ointment composed of one part citron ointment, and four 
of spermaceti, well mixed. 

EYES— Inflamed lids. —Bathe the lids several times a day in a wash 
composed of sulphate of zince, twelve grains ; laudanum, two drachms ; 
soft water, twelve ounces. 

EYES— Wild hairs in. —In this complaint the roots of the eye-lashes 
are diseased, and project through the eye-lid and irritate the ball of the 
eye. The only remedy is to remove the diseased lashes with a pair of 
tweezers, and continue to do so as long as any remain. 


462 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


EARS— Wax in. —The ears should be kept clear of wax, for health and 
decency’s sake. Syringe the ear gently, now and then, with warm castile 
soap suds, and insert a little cotton loosely, for a short time afterwards. 

EAR-ACHE.— a . Take a tablespoonful of fine salt, and tie it up in a 
little bag, heat it quite hot, and lay it on the ear, shifting it several times; 
it will afford a speedy relief. 

b. There is hardly any ache to which children are subject, so bad to 
bear, and so difficult to cure, as the ear-ache. But there is a remedy never 
known to fail. Take a bit of cotton-batting, put on it a pinch of black 
pepper, gather it up and tie it, dip it in sweet oil and insert it in the ear. 
Put a flannel bandage over the head to keep it warm. It will give im¬ 
mediate relief. 

EAR— Accidents to the. —1. In case of very little insects getting in¬ 
to the ear, they will be immediately killed by a few drops of olive oil pour¬ 
ed into the ear. If a child put a seed, a little pebble, or any small body of 
that nature into the ear, it may often be extracted by syringing the passage 
strongly with warm water for some time. 2. If any hard substance gets into 
the ear, and becomes fixed, lie quietly down on the affected side, and send for 
a physician. 3. If a fly or other insect gets into the ear, fill the ear with 
sweet oil, and then syringe it out with warm water. Sometimes it will be 
sufficient to hold the head on one side, with the obstructed ear up, and 
have it filled with warm water. In a few minutes the insect will rise to the 
surface and can be easily removed. 

EAR— Neuralgia of. —This is generally caused by decayed teeth. 
Fill or remove such teeth, and the complaint will generally cease; but if it 
does not, then treat for neuralgia. 

NOSE— Foreign bodies in. —Close the mouth, press the thumb or finger 
tightly over the opposite nostril, and blow forcibly through the obstructed 
side. If this fails, press the thumb against the nose above the obstruction 
then make a hook of a piece of wire or knitting-needle, and pushing it up 
over the obstruction, gently pull it down. Children, in play, often put beans 
in their nose, and if not quickly removed they will swell and cause great 
pain, and sometimes death. 

NOSE— Bleeding of. —To stop bleeding at the nose, blow a little powder¬ 
ed alum or gum-arabic up the nostril through a quill. Pressing the finger 
over the small artery near the wing of the nose, on the side from which the 
blood is flowing, will stop the hemorrhage. If the bleeding is so great as 
to endanger the life of the patient (which is very rarely the case,) stop the 
nostril with lint, soaked in a strong solution of alum. 

TOE-NAIL— Ingrowing.— 1. Keep the top of the nail, near the mid¬ 
dle, scraped very thin with a sharp pen-knife. 2. Bathe the toe in strong, 


MEDICAL. 


4^3 

warm lye, twenty minutes every day; after which apply a poultice of ground 
slippery elm bark and weak lye, changing it twice a day. When the in¬ 
flammation is subdued, press a little fine lint under the edge of the nail, and 
at each dressing cut away as much of the nail as is raised out of the tender 
flesh, until all the appending portion is removed. 3. Press a little lint be¬ 
tween the nail and the tender flesh, then wet a piece of nitrate of silver and 
rub the nail near the lint thoroughly with it, being careful not to touch the 
flesh. In a day or two the nail will become black, and can be removed 
without pain. If the nail is very thick, scrape off the back portion after 
the first application of nitrate of silver, and apply the second time. 

GALLING OR CHAFING.—When the neck, arm-pits, thighs, etc., 
become chafed or galled in hot weather, wash the parts clean with castile 
soap suds, and rub them with starch or powdered slippery elm bark—the 
latter is. more curative. When children become sere about the private 
parts, they should be treated in the same way. 

CHOKING.—1. If the substance has not gone beyond the reach of 
the thumb and finger, thrust them down the throat and endeavor to pul 
it out. If the obstruction be down some distance, it may be pushed on 
into the stomach with some smooth, blunt instrument. 2. Give a pinch 
of snuff and cause the patient to sneeze violently. 3. In case of the sud¬ 
den and dangerous choking of a child or grown person, requiring instant 
relief, press the left hand against the chest of the choking person, throwing 
the body forward, and at the same time give a smart blow or two between 
the shoulders. 

BLEEDING FROM WOUNDS—To stop. —If profuse bleeding occurs 
from a wound in the arm, the whole current of blood to that limb may be 
cut off by some one pressing the thumb firmly into the neck behind the 
middle of the collar bone. The handle of a door-key wrapped in several 
folds of cloth to prevent it from bruising the flesh, may be pressed upon 
this place and held until a physician can be sent for. Dangerous bleeding 
from the thigh or leg can be stopped by pressing upon the great artery just 
below the crease of the groin. If the w'ound be below the middle of the 
thigh or upper arm, pass a strong handkerchief or cord once or twice 
around the limb, as far above the wound as possible, and tie it firmly. 
Then pass a stiff stick under it, and turn it around like the handle of an 
auger, until the circulation is stopped. This should be held in place until 
the arteries are tied and the wound dressed. 

The bleeding of an artery can be distinguished from that of a vein by 
the fact that the blood spouts out in jets, like the beating of the heart, and 
the hemorrhage must be stopped at once, or the patient will die. 

DEATH, Apparent, from noxious vapors. —When persons become 


464 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


insensible from breathing the foul air collected in a well, cellar, cavern, or 
other place, convey them at once to the open air, and sprinkle cold water 
upon the face and head, at the same time rubbing strong vinegar about the 
nostrils. As soon as consciousness begins to return, give a drink of strong 
lemonade, or a few drops of aromatic sulphuric acid, in a glass of cold 
water, slightly sweetened. 

DEATH —Apparent, from lightning. —Place the patient in a current 
of fresh air, and dash cold water upon the face, neck and breast. If the 
body is cold, restore the warmth by rubbing and friction. If breathing has 
ceased, endeavor to restore it by the same method used in apparent death 
from drowning. 

DEATH, Apparent, from the fumes of charcoal. —Use the same 
remedies as in case of apparent death from noxious vapors, and excite 
breathing by the same process employed in restoring a person apparently 
dead from drowning. 

DEATH, Apparent, from drowning. —The patient must be treated 
instantly, on the spot, unless the weather is so cold there is danger of freez¬ 
ing. Rip the clothes off down to the waist, and expose the chest and face 
to the open air. Then quickly and gently place the patient on his face, with 
one wrist under the forehead. This position will cause the tongue and 
fluids to fall forward, and leave the passage to the wind-pipe free. Wait a 
few seconds to see if the patient is breathing; if not, turn quickly on the 
side and excite the nostrils with snuff, or tickle the throat with a feather; 
at the same time dashing cold water on the face, which must previously 
have been rubbed dry and warm. If there is still no indication of breath¬ 
ing, or if the breath be feeble, proceed at once to excite artificial breathing. 
Turn the patient again on his face, supporting the breast on a large pillow, 
folded coat or other articles of clothing. Then gently turn the body on 
the side, and a little beyond, and quickly back again on the face; and 
repeat the turnings back and forth, occasionally varying the side, fifteen times 
in a minute, until life returns. When the patient is on the face, rub the 
extended palm of the hand, or better, a piece of dry flannel, firmly along 
up the back of the chest, discontinuing it immediately before turning the 
body on the side. This gliding pressure aids in expelling the air from the 
chest, and is an important item in the restoration of the patient, but it 
must be discontinued the moment the body is in a position on the side to 
let the air in again. During the above treatment the limbs must be rubbed 
upward toward the body, energetically and with a firm, grasping pressure, 
using handkerchiefs, or warm, soft flannels if at hand. This pushes the 
blood up along the veins toward the heart, and starts the circulation. It 
dries and warms the limbs also, which should be clothed or covered with 


MEDICAL. 


465- 


woolen cloths. If at hand pour a teaspoonful of aromatic spirit of ammo¬ 
nia into the nostrils, and thrust a feather into the nostrils, dipped in water 
ot ammonia. When natural breathing has been restored, give a stimulat¬ 
ing injection of spirits, or better, if at hand, a pint of warm water, with a 
tablespoonful of ground mustard, and a teaspoonful of pulverized cayenne* 
and put a mustard poultice upon the arms and between the legs. 

This is the best treatment known for restoring an apparently drowned 
person, and it has brought back hundreds to life who would have perished 
without it. The treatment should be continued for hours, or until there is, 
no longer a ray of hope. 

DEATH— Apparent, from hanging. —Employ the same means to re¬ 
store breathing as in cases of drowning. Bathe the forehead and face withi 
vinegar, or camphor, and pass hartshorn frequently under the nostrils^ 


ACCIDENTS AND WHAT TO DO. 

ACCIDENTS ON WATER.—If upset in a boat, or otherwise thrown in¬ 
to the water, and unable to swim, do not become frightened or lose your 
presence of mind. Turn yourself on your back, with your head thrown 
back, mouth and nose up, and feet extended diagonally under water. 
Extend your arms, also under the water, and gently move the hands ana 
feet up and down, being careful to keep the feet lower than the head ;; 
and wait calmly until succor reaches you. A person can float for hours in 
this position without fatigue. But don’t forget to keep the head above 
water, and everything else under water. 

CLOTHES CATCHING FIRE.—If your clothes catch fire, don’t run 
or try to pour water on them; but sieze the nearest shawl, cloak, or quilt* 
wrap it closely about your person, and throw yourself flat upon the floor. 
If you run or stand up, the flames will spread and increase in violence. If 
the clothes of a child catch fire, envelop it closely with some covering, 
until the flames are extinguished, and then, if the flesh has been badly 
burned, put it instantly into a tub of cold water, or dash cold water upon it 
to prevent the burn from becoming deep. 

If you are in a crowded theatre, church, or other building, and an alarm 
of fire is given, do not become panic stricken and rush with the crowd. 
Keep cool, and endeavor to restrain the excitement of those around you. 
Few fires occur where all cannot be saved if they act with reasonable pres- 

29 



466 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


ence of mind. The quickest and safest mode of egress from a crowded 
theatre is often over the stage and through the scenery. 

If you are thrown from a horse or fall from any elevated position, 
endeavor to keep the legs and arms extended, so as to protect the vitals. 
It is better to break an arm or a leg than your back, neck or head. 

If wounded in any way when alone, and the blood spurts out in jets, like 
"beats of the heart, an artery has been cut, and you must not try to run for 
help until you stop the bleeding. If an artery is cut, compress above the 
wound; if a vein, compress below. 

For dust in the eyes, avoid rubbing ; dash water in them ; remove cin¬ 
ders, etc., with the round point of a led pencil. 

For slight bums, dip the parts in cold water; if the skin is destroyed, 
cover with varnish. 

Smother fire with carpets, etc., water will often spread burning oil and 
increase the danger. Before passing through smoke, take a long breath, 
then stoop low; but if carbonic acid gas is suspected, walk erect. 


POISONS AND THEIR ANTIDOTES. 

GENERAL RULES.—i. In case of poisoning, if none of the specific 
antidotes are at hand, incite vomiting with the finger, or a feather; or bet¬ 
ter, by drinking a glassful of warm water, into which a teaspoonful each of 
ground mustard and salt have been stirred. This will produce vomiting 
in about one minute. Then swallow the whites of two or three eggs, in a 
cup of strong coffee, sweet cream, or milk. If neither coffee, cream not 
milk is at hand, swallow the eggs alone. 

2. For acid poisons, give alkalies ; for alkaline poisons, give acids—white 
-of egg is good in most cases; in cases of opium poisoning, give strong 
coffee, and keep moving. 

3. In all cases of poisoning, give the antidote as quickly as possible. 

AMMONIA.—Water of ammonia, or hartshorn, in an undiluted state, 

is a violent poison. Vinegar, mixed with a little water, is the antidote. 

ANTIMONY.—Tartar emetic, and wine of antimony, if taken in too 
large doses, will act as poisons. Give a strong tea of slippery elm, or flax¬ 
seed, with twenty-five drops of laudanum. A strong tea of oak bark should 
also be taken, to neutralize the poisons. 

ARSENIC.—Use the stomach pump instantly, if one can be had; if 
not, excite vomiting as in General Rule No. 1. As soon as it can be obtain- 



MEDICAL. 


467 

ed, give hydrated sesquioxide of iron, in tablespoonful doses, mixed with 
water, every five or ten minutes, until half a dozen doses are taken. If 
this cannot be obtained, give twenty grains sulphate of zinc (white vitriol) 
in a little warm water. Treat the inflammation of the stomach, which 
always follows poisoning by arsenic, with mustard poultices, liquid diet, and 
mucilaginous drinks. 

VIRDIGRIS.—Incite vomiting, as in Rule No. 1. Then give two tea¬ 
spoonfuls of common bread soda in a tumblerful of water. Follow this 
with whites of eggs, diffused in water, and mucilaginous drinks. 

CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE— Bed-bug poison .—Use the stomach 
pump, if convenient. If not mix the whites of a dozen eggs with a quart 
of cold water, and give a glassful every two minutes until the stomach will 
contain no more. If there are not eggs enough at hand, supply the defi¬ 
ciency with sweet milk or cream. Wheat flour, mixed with water, is a good 
remedy. The resulting inflammation should be treated by poulticing or 
bleeding. 

SUGAR OF LEAD —Lead, etc. —Apply Rule No. 1. Then give di¬ 
luted sulphuric acid, or Epsom salts. 

LYE.—Give vinegar, or oil. Both are antidotes, in the order given. 

SALTPETRE.—Cause vomiting by lukewarm water, or tickling the throat 
with a feather. Irritating emetics must not be given in this case. 

WHITE VITRIOL.—Apply Rule No. 1, and then give freely of bread 
soda in water. 

OXALIC ACID.—This resembles Epsom salts, and can be distinguished 
only by the taste—salts being bitter , and oxalic acid very sour. In case of 
poisoning by this drug, take magnesia, in water, immediately; or use the 
stomach pump, if at hand. When neither of these can be had, take chalk, 
lime, or saleratus. 

ACONITE {wolfs-bane,or monk's-hood .)—Use the stomach pump, or 
apply Rule No. 1 . Then give stimulants of brandy, gin, rum, or whisky. 

OPIUM, MORPHINE, LAUDANUM.—Apply the stomach pump, or 
Rule No 1. If the patient is inclined to sleep, take him into the open air, 
and keep him moving as rapidly as possible ; dash cold water into his face, 
stimulate him with brandy, or do any reasonable thing to keep him awake. 
If he still falls asleep, apply the means for producing artificial breathing, as 
in case of a person apparently dead from drowning. Plenty of very strong 
coffee is a good remedy for poisoning by opium, morphine or laudanum. 

STRYCHNINE.—Employ the same remedies as for poisoning by opium, 
except that liberal draughts of sweet milk should be given. Two ounces of 
camphor, dissolved in a quart of whisky, and given in large drinks, is also an 
antidote. 


468 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


SPANISH FLIES.—Give large draughts of sweet oil, sugar and water, 
sweet milk, or flax-seed tea. Relieve the ensuing inflammation of the blad¬ 
der with a liniment of camphor and sweet oil and give camphor internally, 
to relieve the scalding of the water. 

DOGWOOD, POISON IVY, ETC.—Give an energetic cathartic of salts, 
or castor oil, and if the surface it affected, wash the parts with a strong 
decoction of hazel bark, or solution of sugar of lead. 

BELLADONNA, HYOSCYAMUS, STRAMONIUM ( Jamestown- 
weed ).—These are narcotic poisons, and must be treated"the same as pois¬ 
oning by opium. 

PRUSIC ACID.—This the deadliest of all known poisons. A single 
drop of the acid will cause immediate death. The antidote is hartshorn, 
diluted with six parts water, given freely. 

PHOSPHORUS. — Children sometimes swallow the phosphorus on 
matches, and are poisoned by it. Apply Rule No. i. After which give 
copious draughts of magnesia, suspended in water, followed by mucilag¬ 
inous drinks. 

MUSHROOMS.—Rule No. i, followed by Epsom salts, and stimu¬ 
lants. If inflammatiom should follow the treatment, the stimulants must 
be discontinued, and the inflammation treated as in other cases. 

TOBACCO.—Empty the stomach by Rule No. i.; then apply mustard 
to the abdomen and extremities, and give strong coffee and brandy. 

POKE ROOT.—Rule No. i., followed by castor oil as a cathartic, and 
stimulate with strong coffee, camphor or opium. 

ALCOHOL, SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.—After emptying the stomach, 
give strong coffee, or teaspoonful doses of aromatic spirits of hartshorn, 
diluted with water. Also pour cold water on the head and back of the 
neck, and rub or slap the ankles, wrists, palms, and soles of the feet. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 

TOOTHACHE.—Saturate a piece of cotton with oil of cloves, creosote, 
or laudanum, and insert it in the cavity of the tooth. Also rub the cheek 
or face, just over the troublesome tooth, with whisky or laudanum. As 
soon as the pain is relieved, go to a good dentist and have the tooth filled ; 
or if it is too much decayed to be saved by filling, have it drawn out. De¬ 
cayed teeth should always be treated or removed, for they infect the breath 
and greatly injure the health. Keep the teeth clean by daily washing with 



MEDICAL. 469 

a good, clean brush. The friction does not injure the teeth, as many sup¬ 
pose, but the dirt and filth that are often allowed to remain do. 

ICE—To freeze. —Mix six drachms sulphate of soda, four drachms 
hydrochlorate of arnmonia, two drachms nitrate of potash, and four drachms 
diluted nitric acid. Enclose the liquid to be frozen in a thin vessel and im¬ 
merse it in the mixture. It will freeze almost instantly. 

The following combinations may also be used for freezing ice: 

Muriate of ammonia, five ounces; nitrate of potash, five ounces ; water, 
sixteen ounces. 

Nitrate of ammonia and water, equal parts. 

Phosphate of soda, nine parts ; diluted nitric acid, four parts. 

Sulphate of soda, eight parts ; muriatic acid five parts. 

Snow or pounded ice, two parts; salt, one part. 









Laws of Business and Mercantile Usages. 


CONTRACTS.—A contract is defined as “ an agreement between two 
or more persons based upon a sufficient consideration to do or omit a par¬ 
ticular thing.” 

When the act to be performed is described, and the consideration therefor 
is stipulated, it is called an express contract. 

An implied contract is where the law presumes that there must have been 
some understanding with regard to the service rendered by reason of one 
of the parties accepting some benefit from it. An implied contract is as* 
binding as an express one. 

Contracts are of two kinds, namely, contracts under seal, and parol con¬ 
tracts. 

A contract under a seal or a specialty is the highest class of agreement 
that can be entered into, and cannot be varied or explained by any agree¬ 
ment affecting it, unless in writing and also under seal, and where the receipt 
of the consideration is confessed or named, and such consideration cannot 
be denied, even though none was received, or a larger amount named than 
the actual consideration. Actions also can be brought on agreements un¬ 
der seal after a lapse of a longer time than on ordinary parol contracts. 

Parol contracts may be either verbal or written, and are equally binding.. 

In order to make a binding contract, whether parol or under seal, several 
conditions are necessary, either of which being omitted avoids the contract* 
or renders it voidable. 

A contract in order to be binding must be entered into by two or more 
persons who are capable of contracting, and the agreement must be founded 
upon a good or valuable consideration, which must be lawful, and the act to 
be done lawful, and not contrary to public policy. The agreement must 
also be mutual, binding both parties, and there must be an assent or union 
of minds at the time the contract is entered into. 

Where parties are legally competent to contract, and the subject-matter 
and consideration are lawful, there must be, in order to make the agree¬ 
ment binding, a distinct proposition by one party, which must be duly and 
immediately accepted by the other. 

A mere offer or overture unaccepted is binding on neither party, and may 
be withdrawn at any time. Where an offer is made and not accepted at. 

47i 


-472 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


the time, a subsequent acceptance will not bind the other party, for in the 
mean-time he may have changed his mind. A proposition may be made, 
however, and a valid agreement entered into, leaving it open for acceptance 
for a certain length of time, by giving what is called a refusal, but such re¬ 
fusal must be based upon a valid consideration. 

Where a promise is made on each side, they must be made at the same 
time, bindening on both parties, or they will be binding on neither; but a 
bargain may be put in such shape that it will be obligatory on one party and 
optional with the other, if it is based upon a sufficient consideration. 

Where an offer is made by letter and accepted in the same manner, or by 
telegraph, the contract is a written one. 

If a proposition be made by letter the acceptance should be immediate, 
and the contract is closed when the letter accepting the proposition is 
mailed. 

An offer by mail may be withdrawn at any time, but in order to take 
effect the revocation must reach the party to whom the proposition is made 
before he sends his letter or dispatch accepting it. 

An acceptance, to be binding, must be in the very terms of the proposi¬ 
tion ; any alteration makes a new proposition. 

There are several exceptions to the rule requiring a contract to be mutual, 
and the assent to follow the proposition: 

1. An offer of reward. Here the act which entitles one to the reward 
can be performed without previous acceptance. 

2. A minor can, in many cases, hold the other party to the performance 
of his contract, while he can set up his infancy as a bar to an action brought 
.against himself. 

3. A person, induced through fraud to enter into a contract, can hold the 
■other party, or avoid it, by setting up the fraud as a defense to any action 
brought against him under it; but if, after the discovery of the deceit, he 
accepts any further benefit from the contract, it is thereby ratified, and the 
fraud cannot then be set up as a defense. 

4. A party compelled to enter into a contract through force, may ratify or 
avoid it at his option after the duress is removed. 

5. Contracts required by the statute of frauds to be in writing admit of a 
Temedy against the parties signing, while they deny any against those who 
have not signed. 

No particular form of words is necessary to constitute a valid and bind¬ 
ing cantract, but where the agreement is in writing, care should be taken 
to have its provisions fully set forth. A verbal agreement may be changed 
by a verbal amendment, if in writing the change should be in writing 
•signed by the party assenting to it, and if under seal, the alteration should 
2)e under seal. 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 


473 


A contract to perform any act in controvention of public policy, or to do 
an unlawful act, or if the consideration upon which it is founded is illegal, 
it is absolutely void and cannot be enforced; such as contracts to commit a 
felony; gambling contracts, and, in some States, usurious contracts. Con¬ 
tracts in restraint of marriage are void, but a contract not to marry a par¬ 
ticular person is valid; a contract in general restraint of trade is illegal and 
void, but if a contract is made in partial restraint of trade, as where it is 
limited to a particular place, it is valid. 

CONSIDERATION.—The consideration is that which is given or agreed 
to be given or done by one party for the benefit received from or promised 
by the other. 

A consideration may be good or valuable. 

A good consideration has no pecuniary value, but rests on moral duty, 
relationship, etc. 

A valuable consideration consists of that which has some pecuniary 
value as money, labor, property, etc., or where some loss, inconvenience, 
or deprivation is suffered. 

A promise based upon a valuable consideration can be enforced or 
damages recovered at law, but a promise based upon what is termed a 
technically good consideration, cannot be enforced. 

A voluntary conveyance by a husband to his wife or a father to a son is 
based upon a good consideration, the relationship, and cannot be set aside 
by the grantor, but it can be by the creditors. A settlement, however, made 
upon a woman in anticipation of marriage, or after marriage in pursuance 
of an ante-nuptial agreement, in writing, is based upon a valuable consid¬ 
eration, and cannot be set aside by creditors in the absence of fraud. 

PARTIES INCAPABLE OF CONTRACTING.—The following classes 
of persons are ordinarily incompetent to make binding contracts: i. Infants 
(persons under 21 years of age). 2. Married women. 3. Persons of 
unsound mind. 4. Habitual drunkards. 5. Spendthrifts. 6. Persons 
under duress. 7. Seamen. 8. Alien enemies. 

Minors are exempted from liability on their contracts, as a general rule, 
but in certain cases they can be compelled, after majority, to pay a reason¬ 
able price for necessary artilces of food and clothing furnished during their 
minority. Parents are liable for necessaries furnished to minors, and it 
would seem that the minor is not liable if the debt is recoverable from the 
parent. 

A minor, representing himself of age, is liable, not on his contract, but 
for his fraud and deceit; he is also liable for his malicious acts. 

Money loaned a minor cannot be recovered, although expended for nec¬ 
essaries. It should be expended for him. A note given by a minor, even 


474 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


though for necessary food or education, cannot be sued on, but the note 
can be abandoned and suit brought on the account. 

An infant may ratify his acts after becoming of age, and he is then liable, 
and if he accepts further benefit under a contract, after coming of age, he 
thereby ratifies it. 

A person contracting with a minor is bound, and cannot take advantage 
of the disability of the other party, as the law was framed to prevent minors 
from being wronged. 

Married women are not, as a general rule, liable on their contracts; in 
most States, however, by special statutory enactment, a married woman may, 
by observing certain formalities, charge property, which is held by her 
separate and apart from her husband, with her debts. 

The husband is liable for necessaries purchased by the wife, if he neg¬ 
lects or refuses to provide for his family, or in his absence, but he cannot be 
held on extravagant purchases not suitable to her condition in life; he will 
be liable, however, if he has sanctioned such parchases, or if his acts would 
imply an agency. 

Contracts entered into by persons of unsound mind, drunkards and 
spendthrifts, can be set aside by themselves or their heirs or assigns, but 
parties in interest in such cases should have a guardian or committee ap¬ 
pointed as required by the laws of different States. 

Seamen are protected against their contracts when any advantage is 
taken against them. 

A party who undertakes to perform an act which is impossible, or which 
may become so, will be liable on his contract, but if one undertakes to dis¬ 
charge the duties of an office, and is prevented by an act of God, in¬ 
evitable accident, or by public enemies, he will be excused from that part 
which becomes impossible. 

THE STATUTE OF FRAUDS.—In most States the English statute, 
passed in the reign of Charles II., has been re-enacted, with some omis¬ 
sions or alterations. 

These statutes do not render contracts fraudulent, but are passed for the 
prevention of frauds and perjuries, and require that certain contracts should 
be made in writing, or some memorandum or note thereof made in writing 
and signed by the party to be charged, otherwise they are void. 

The following contracts are required by the statute of frauds to be in 
writing: 

Contracts by an adiministrator or executor to answer in damages out of 
his own estate. 

Promises to answer for the debt, fault or miscarriage of another. 

Contracts for the sale of lands, or any interest in or concerning them, and 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 


475 

in some States all leases of tenements for any space of time whatever, in 
cities having a certain number of inhabitants, must be made in writing. 

Agreements made upon consideration of marriage. 

All agreements which are not to be performed within the space of one 
year from the making thereof. 

All agreements for the sale of goods and chattels above a certain amount, 
varying from fifteen to thirty dollars, unless the purchaser shall accept and 
actually receive a portion of the goods sold, or give something in earnest, 
or payment therefor. 

Where the statute requires the memorandum to be “signed” it will be 
sufficient if the party to be charged writes his name in ink or pencil, or has 
it printed in the body of the agreement, but where it is required to be “ sub¬ 
scribed” it should beat the bottom or end of the writing. 

STATUTES OF LIMITATION.—Contracts can only be enforced 
within the time specified by the statutes of limitation in the several States. 
Personal actions arising on verbal or unwritten contracts are barred by the 
statutes of limitations in the older States in five or six years, but in some of 
the Western and Southern States the time is as short as two years. 

Written contracts not under seal usually have a longer time before out¬ 
lawing than verbal ones, and those under seal can in most States be enforced 
within ten or twenty years. 

After a debt is barred by the statute, it cannot be revived except by the 
act of the debtor. An express promise to pay the debt will revive it, but 
such promise is usually required to be in writing. 

As a rule, the statute does not run against minors or married women and 
other parties laboring under disabilities, until the disability is removed, but 
if the statute begins to run before the disability, it continues during the same. 

The statute of limitation begins to run from the time the right of action 
accrues. 

The statute will not run in favor of a debtor who absconds or absents 
himself from the State, but if after such absence he returns, the statute will 
run during a subsequent absence. 

It will not run against a female marrying before coming of age, but if the 
coverture terminates, the statute runs continuously, although there is a sub¬ 
sequent marriage. 

Contracts may be extinguished in several ways, as by performance of the 
agreement in case something is to be done or omitted, by making a new 
contract in regard to the same subject-matter and incompatible with the for¬ 
mer, by settlement or composition, and by a voluntary release. 

In case the agreement is under seal, the release must, as a rule, be under 
seal also, and a written agreement requires a release in writing. Where 


4;6 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


money was to be paid, a receipt in full is prima facie evidence of payment, 
but where a receipt is given under a mistake as to facts, a balance, if due, 
may be recovered. 

Where the terms of an agreement are violated by one party, the con¬ 
tract can be rescinded by the one who has been guilty of no default, if the 
violation consists of the neglect to perform a condition precedent , and the 
abandonment of the contract places the parties upon the same basis they 
were before the contract was entered into. 

No person of substance should make a contract binding himself where 
nothing could be recovered of the other party in case of a breach, or where 
the cost of recovery would counterbalance the damages claimed. 

One should be careful not to give or bind himself to give a valuable con¬ 
sideration to a stranger without means for something in return, which may 
turn out to be worthless, as in such case no recovery can be had. 

A party dealing with another of doubtful honesty or ability, should, if pos¬ 
sible, draw the contract so as to bind the other, and leave an escape for 
himself, if he finds that advantage is being taken of him. 

It ought to be a part of every man’s religion to fulfill his contracts to the 
letter, and to respond in reasonable damages when not able to do so. 

A man who is careless in making and performing his contracts will usually 
have an infinite amount of trouble, and eventually lose a large portion of 
his property. 

When an option is offered it should be taken advantage of, and inserted 
in the agreement. 

The greatest possible care should be taken when making contracts with 
shrewd men, having the reputation of being dishonest and oppressive. 

No honest man will enter into a contract whereby he or his family will be 
in danger of being impoverished. 

Sign nothing involving risk, except after mature consideration. 

PARTIES to a contract may be joint or several, or both joint and several. 

Where a right accrues jointly, all parties must join, to enforce it. 

Where money is recovered from a joint party, he can enforce the others 
to contribute. 

Joint parties can act for each other, and all are bound. 

Where the obligation is joint and several, it is joint and several at the op¬ 
tion of the other party. 

PARTNERSHIP.—A partnership is where “ two or more persons agree 
to combine their property, or labor, for the purpose of a common under¬ 
taking, and the acquisition of a common profit,” and it may be formed for 
the prosecution of any lawful business or calling. 

The important feature of a co-partnership, is the agreement to share the 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 


4 77 


profits and losses, but a stipulation to free one or more partners from any 
losses that may occur will be good between the partners themselves, although 
it will have no effect on the liability to third persons. 

To constitute a person a partner he must share in the profits as a prin¬ 
cipal, and not as a mere agent or servant, i. e. , he must have a proprietary 
interest. Where one receives a percentage of the profits as a salary, he is 
not a partner. 

In the formation of a partnership, the assent of all parties is requisite. 
One partner cannot introduce another into the partnership without first ob¬ 
taining the assent of all the parties, nor can he dispose of his interest, 
and constitute the purchaser a valid partner, without the consent of the 
others. 

These are the modes of forming a partnership : 

1. By articles of agreement formally executed and delivered. 

2. By verbal agreement. 

3. By the acts of the parties. 

Where two or more parties combine their property, and mutually act as 
partners, the law will imply a partnership, although there may be no ex¬ 
press agreement to that effect, and where a party holds himself out as a 
partner he thereby renders himself liable to such as have been induced to 
act upon his supposed connection with the firm ; but he is nevertheless not 
a partner, as there is still wanting the element of consent. 

There are three kinds of partners : 

1 st. Real or ostensible partners who have an actual interest in the busi¬ 
ness, and publicly hold themselves out as partners. 

2d. Dormant or silent partners, who have an interest in the firm property 
and share in the gains, but who conceal their names and are not publicly 
known as partners. 

3d. Nominal partners, or those who allow their names to be used to draw 
trade or sustain the credit of the business, but have no pecuniary interest 
whatever in it. 

A nominal partner is liable for the firm obligations while permitting the 
use of his name, and a dormant partner is liable when discovered. A per¬ 
son entering a partnership does not become liable for the previous debts 
of the firm unless he specially agrees to do so. 

One partner cannot bring suit against another at common law upon any- 
obligation arising out of the partnership except after a final settlement and 
a promise to pay a balance due upon such settlement. 

The amount invested by partners belongs to them only after all the losses 
and liabilities of the business are paid, and a judgment creditor of one in 
dividual partner can only levy on a partner’s interest subject to the debts of 
the firm. 


478 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


Each partner is individually liable for the entire debts of the copartner¬ 
ship, and his entire property may be taken, if necessary, to pay the firm 
liabilities, but in several States a person may become a limited partner by 
going through certain formalities prescribed by the special act of legislature 
creating such partnerships, and then will he be liable only for the amount 
invested in the business. 

Each partner may act for all and bind his copartners in any matter relat¬ 
ing to the partnership business, but there are certain limitations as to the 
manner in which a binding contract can be made. If the partnership arti¬ 
cles prohibit a partner from contracting in the firm’s name, he can still bind 
his partners if the other party acts in good faith and without notice, and a 
partner may bind the firm by contracts made in his own name, if for the 
benefit of the partnership. A partner borrowing money from another for 
the use of the partnership renders it liable, although converted to his own 
use, but if he borrows in his individual name he alone will be liable, although 
the money is applied to the use of the partnership. A partner selling the 
goods of the firm and misapplying the proceeds gives the vendee a good 
title, but if he pays his individual debts with partnership property, it may be 
recovered back, even though the creditor was ignorant of the fact that he 
was receiving partnership goods. A guarantee in writing, as required by 
the statute of frauds, although given to a single partner, inures to the ben¬ 
efit of all, if intended for the use of the partnership. 

The payment of a partnership debt to one partner is payment to all, 
whether before or after dissolution, and a debt due the firm may be released 
by one partner. One partner may give time to a partnership debtor by 
taking his note or acceptance, or he may make such an agreement as will 
preclude the partnership from suing. 

As a rule, a partner can only bind the partnership by simple contract, and 
the contract must be respecting the partnership business—the assurance, 
however, of one partner that the transaction is for the firm account will bind 
all the partners. 

One partner cannot bind the firm by a deed, or in general by an instru¬ 
ment under seal, unless executed in the presence of the other partners with 
their assent, unless subsequently approved and adopted by them and the 
ratification may be verbal. A partner cannot bind the firm by a submis¬ 
sion to arbitration, or a general assignment, or a confession of judgment be¬ 
fore an action is brought, nor can he confess judgment in a pending suit 
-or after the partnership has been dissolved. 

A secret contract made by a partner for his own advantage inures to the 
benefit of the partnership if discovered. Notice to one partner is notice to 
.all, and service of legal papers on one binds all. 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 


479 


DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIPS.—By lapse of time, as specified 
in the contract; by the completion of the partnership business; by the con¬ 
sent of the parties or the withdrawal of one or more where no time is stipu¬ 
lated ; by the insolvency of the firm, or a valid assignment of the firm prop¬ 
erty by one of the partners; by the bankruptcy of one partner or the sale 
of his interest under execution ; by the death of either of the partners ; by 
the marriage of a feme sole partner; by the appointment of a receiver by 
a Court of Chancery, as will usually be done if one of the partners becomes 
insane or a habitual drunkard ; or if the business is found to be visionary 
and impracticable, and the assets are liable to be wasted ; or if the conduct 
of one partner is so grossly improper or dishonest that the business is 
injured, or its continuance rendered impossible. 

When a partnership is dissolved by the death of one of the partners, no 
public notice is necessary, nor where the partnership expires by its own 
limitation or by operation of law, but when a partner dissolves the partner¬ 
ship by his own act or withdrawal to avoid further liability, he should pub¬ 
lish the dissolution in the principal newspapers of the place where the busi¬ 
ness is carried on, and send notices to all persons who have had previous 
dealings with the firm. 

By special acts of the Legislatures of several States, three or more per¬ 
sons are enabled to form a corporation for the purpose of conducting any 
legal business and be liable no further than the actual amount of their 
stock, and this should always be done by parties who wish to make invest¬ 
ments in any business which is to be conducted by agents or other partners, 
or where no personal supervision can be exercised. 

A partnership contract should be entered into with very great caution, 
and no partnership should ever be formed with a stranger or a person of 
doubtful integrity or business capacity. A man of means places his entire 
property at the mercy of the partnership creditors, or if without much 
property he may be loaded down with partnership debts. As a rule, it is 
a bad and dangerous practice to form partnerships for the purpose of help¬ 
ing others along. It is better to lend the money outright and take such 
security as can be had; the worst that can then happen is the loss of the 
debt. No one should go into partnership with another unless entire reli¬ 
ance can be placed in his honesty and ability, and, if after forming a part¬ 
nership, it is found that one or more members of the firm are about swamp¬ 
ing the partnership by a careless or fraudulent issue of negotiable paper, 
it should be at once dissolved and the dissolution advertised. 

AGENTS.—An agent is one who is appointed by another to transact 
business in his place and stead, and the party appointing the agent is 
called the principal. 


480 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


All agencies are based upon contract, express or implied, and an im¬ 
plied agency arises when there is no express appointment, but such acts 
are performed by the agent and assented to by the principal as will indi¬ 
cate an authority to act in his behalf. 

The power of a party to create an agency is co-extensive with his own 
ability to do business, and in general a man may substitute an agent to do 
whatever he himself has power to do in his own right; if his capacity is 
limited, as in case of a married woman or a minor, the power to appoint 
an agent is subject to like limitations, but a party incapable of acting for 
himself may act for others as their agent, and as the act of the agent is the 
act of the principal, the disability of the agent does not attach. Where 
nature, however, has created the barrier, as in case of insanity, imbecility, 
etc., there can be no agency. 

An agent can act for only one party in any matter requiring discretion, 
and if he acts for both the contract will be set aside by a court of equity. 

There are four ways of creating an agency: 

1 st. By a formal contract under seal. This is required in all cases where 
it is necessary for the agent to contract under seal, or release sealed con¬ 
tracts, as the agent cannot generally make a contract which is of a higher 
nature than his own authority. A power of attorney to convey lands is 
usually required to be recorded in the office where the owner’s title to them 
is recorded. 

2d. By a contract in writing, not under seal, and the writing may be in¬ 
formal, as by letter, written instructions, memoranda, etc. 

3d. By verbal appointment or agreement. 

4th. By implication, as where a party holds himself out as acting for 
another, who stands by or accepts the benefit of his acts, or sanctions them. 

An agency is special or general. A special agency is an authority to do 
a single act, and a general agency consists of a delegation of authority to 
do all acts that are connected with a particular business. A factor is an 
agent for the sale of property, and is therefore intrusted with it. A 
broker is an agent for the purpose of effecting sales, and this can be done 
without his having charge of the property. 

The acts of an agent should conform with the terms of his authoritv, 
and he should follow out his instructions; if he fails to do so he renders 
himself liable, and in most cases his principal will not be bound. Authoritv 
to do an act includes everything necessary to its proper performance, 
whether the agency is express or implied. An agent to sell may bind the 
owner by giving a warranty. An auctioneer, however, cannot bind by 
warranty without express authority. An agent to get a bill discounted mav 
bind his principal by indorsement. 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 481 

Authority to sell gives authority to sell on credit. This has an exception 
in the case of an agent for a State. 

The principal will not be liable for the malicious or criminal acts of his 
agent. He will, however, be liable for his wilful and oppressive acts if done 
in the performance of the duties imposed upon him by the agency, also for 
his fraud and misconduct while in the discharge of his trust, and also for 
his carelessness, negligence and incapacity whereby the property of others 
suffers damage. 

An agent cannot act adversely to his principal. He cannot appoint a 
sub-agent without express authority to do so, or unless sanctioned by well- 
known usage or custom. 

An agent may disobey his instructions in the following cases. 

1. Where an unforeseen necessity arises not contemplated by the parties. 

2. Where circumstances render a strict conpliance impossible. 

3. Where a compliance would, in effect, perpetrate a fraud upon others. 

An agent is responsible to his principal for reasonable diligence in the 

discharge of his duties, and for the safe keeping of property in his charge. 

Termination of an Agency. —Where an agency is not coupled with an 
interest, it can be revoked at pleasure by the principal, but he will still be 
liable to parties dealing with the agent in good faith unless public notice is 
given of the revocation. 

An agent can renounce his agency, but if he has entered upon it he will 
be liable if his principal suffers damages thereby. 

An agency is also terminated: 

1 st. By its own limitation. 

2d. By the death of the principal or agent, unless coupled with an in¬ 
terest. 

3d. By such change in the condition of the principal or agent as will 
render its continuance impossible, but this will not extend to any mere 
formal act which passes no interest. The bankruptcy of either party ter¬ 
minates the agency, also the marriage of a fevie sole , etc. 

4th. An agency is terminated by its complete execution. 

Signature by an agent. —An agent should sign for his principal and not 
for himself. The best form is “ A by B, agent,” or “ B, agent for A, prin¬ 
cipal.” If Bis trustee for a corporation and signs negotiable paper simply 
“ B, Trustee,” he can be made to pay, if the corporation fails, and he has 
money. 

Notice to an agent is notice to the principal, and knowledge of the prin¬ 
cipal is knowledge of the agent. 

In dealing with a stranger claiming to be an agent always ask for his au¬ 
thority, and if he is really an agent he will be able to produce it. 

30 


482 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


NEGOTIABLE PAPER.—The laws applying to negotiable paper are, 
with the exception of a few legislative enactments, derived from the custom 
of merchants, and have been fixed by the decisions of the courts with great 
exactness. 

There are three kinds of negotiable paper: The Note, the Bill of Ex¬ 
change or Draft, and the Check 

A promissory note is a written promise to pay a certain amount of money 
at a time therein limited, or on demand, or at sight, to a party named there¬ 
in, or to his order, or to bearer. 

A bill of exchange, or draft, is, in its simplest form, an open letter of re¬ 
quest drawn by one party and directed to another, asking him to pay a 
certain sum of money to a third person, or his order, or to bearer. 

A bank check is a written order addressed to a bank or a person carry¬ 
ing on a banking business, directing the payment of a certain amount of 
money to bearer, or a person therein named, on presentation. 

NEGOTIABLE NOTE.—FORM. 

$75.50. St. Louis,M o., April 5, 1879. 

Sixty days after date I promise to pay to the order of John Smith Seventy- 
five Dollars, for value received. 

R. C. Spencer. 


BILL OF EXCHANGE. 

$100.00 St. Louis, Mo., April 5, 1879. 

At sixty days’ sight pay to the order of John Smith, One Hundred Dollars, 
for value received, and charge the same to account of 

S. Simmons. 

To S. S. Packard, N. Y. City. 

BANK CHECK. 

$200.00. St. Louis, Mo., April 5, 1879. 

Fourth National Bank, pay to John Smith or order, Two Hundred 
Dollars. 

S. Simmons. 

In writing out a note the amount should be placed in figures at the left 
hand upper or lower corner, the place where and the time when given 
should be named; in other words, it should be dated, but if the date is 
omitted it is still a valid note and will be due at the specified time after 
delivery. The day of the month and year are given in figures, and the 
balance of the note should be in writing. The words “value received” 
ought to be inserted, but in most of the States they are not required to con- 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 


483 


stitutea valid negotiable note. In several States, however, it was formerly 
necessary to insert the words, “ For value received, negotiable and payable 
without discount or defalcation,” and the words, “ negotiable and payable,” 
etc., were struck out by act of Legislature, and in such case the words 
“ value received ” must be inserted or the note will not be negotiable. 

The person signing a note is called the “ maker,” the party to whom it is 
payable is called the “ payee,” and after the payee has transferred it by 
indorsement on the back, he is called the “ indorser,” and the party receiv¬ 
ing it is called the “ indorsee ” or holder, and if the indorsee transfers it he 
is sometimes called the subsequent indorser. The same applies to checks 
and drafts. 

A bill of exchange usually has three parties, the “ drawer,” whose name 
is written in the right hand lower corner, and who writes out or draws the 
bill; the “ drawee ” or person to whom it is directed and whose name is in 
the left lower corner, and the “ payee ” whose name is in the body of the 
bill. 

Where a draft is made payable at a certain time after date it should be 
dated. When payable after sight, as in the foregoing form, it must be pre¬ 
sented for acceptance or it can never become due, and the acceptance is 
usually made by writing “accepted,” and giving date and signature across the 
face of the bill in pale ink, the color differing from that of the draft only 
because it can more easily be read. 

After the drawee accepts he is called the “ acceptor,” and the bill is fre¬ 
quently referred to as an “ acceptance,” the drawee’s liability being fixed. 
If a bill of exchange is payable after date an acceptance is not necessary, 
but if in the hands of an agent its acceptance should be demanded, as he 
will be liable in case the drawer fails and the bill is lost by his neglect to get 
the signature of the drawee. A sight bill needs no acceptance, being pay¬ 
able on presentation without grace, and is analagous, in many respects, to 
a check. 

A check is generally held to be an assignment of the money of the maker 
in the bank on which it is drawn to the amount named therein, and when a 
demand is made upon the paying teller, the bank has notice of such assign¬ 
ment and cannot pay out the money on a subsequent check without becom¬ 
ing liable. 

The liability of the indorser of a check is the same as that of the indorser 
of a bill of exchange, as hereinafter set forth, but the liabilities of the drawer 
of a bill and the maker of a check differ. The drawer of a draft is liable as 
an indorser, failing to receive notice he escapes, but if a check is 
hoarded by the holder, thereby releasing the indorsers, the maker will only 
be relieved from payment so far as he has been injured by the holder’s neg- 


484 


brand's cyclopedia. 


ligence. Where a check is transferred to several persons in succession, 
each has a reasonable time to negotiate it or draw the money, generally one 
day each, but if a check has been in use for several days, an indorser 
should at once get it cashed. If a person gives a check for a valuable con¬ 
sideration and falsely states that he has money in the bank on which it is 
drawn, to meet it, he is criminally liable. 

Parties to negotiable paper are primarily liable when they are absolutely 
bound to pay the bill when due, if demanded, and if no demand is then 
made they must pay if demanded or sued on before it is barred by the stat¬ 
ute of limitations. The maker of a note and acceptor of a draft are prima¬ 
rily liable. Parties secondarily liable are those who are obliged to pay in 
case of the failure of the persons who are primarily liable, but in order to 
fix this secondary liability and make it absolute, certain acts must be per¬ 
formed by the holder or some one for him. Secondary parties are the 
drawer of a bill of exchange, the maker of a check and the indorsers of any 
kind of negotiable paper. 

A bill of exchange is either foreign or inland. A foreign bill is one that 
is drawn in one country and payable in another. An inland bill is where 
the drawer and drawee reside in the same country. If the drawer and 
drawee live in different states it is a foreign bill although they may not be 
five miles apart, and if they live in the same state but in different counties 
it is an inland bill. 

Duties of the holder.— If the holder of negotiable paper wishes to 
bind the drawer and indorsers he is held to a strict observance of the rules 
in regard to it. Any failure on his part will release them. The payee of a 
check or sight bill should demand payment or negotiate within a reasonable 
time. 

The payee or holder of a bill of exchange, drawn payable at a certain 
time after sight, should, soon after it comes into his possession, hunt up the 
drawee and produce and exhibit it and demand acceptance. The drawee 
may accept, refuse or ask for time. If he accepts, his liability then becomes 
the same as that of the maker of a note, i. e ., he must pay. He is abso¬ 
lutely liable and cannot afterwards refuse to pay if he has no funds belonging 
to the drawer in his hands. A bank certifying a check becomes absolutely 
liable on it, the same as the acceptor of a draft. If the drawee refuses to 
accept, the bill should be protested the same or the next day and notices 
sent to the drawer and all the indorsers, and unless notice is sent them they 
will not be bound. If the bill is a foreign bill it must be protested or the 
drawer and indorsers will be released, but if it is an inland bill, notice alone 
will be sufficient. 

The drawee, before accepting, may take the bill into his possession and 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 


48 $ 

keep it a reasonable length of time to ascertain if there is any balance due 
the drawer, and such time is generally limited by the statute to twenty-four 
hours. If he wrongfully keeps the bill beyond this time the payee may con¬ 
sider the bill accepted and demand payment when due. The payee may 
demand an acceptance in writing according to the terms of the bill and re¬ 
fuse any other. 

Time of payment.— Commercial paper may be made payable at sight 
or on demand, or at a certain number of days after sight or after date. If 
no time is named it is payable on demand. A mere acknowledgment of 
a debt in writing or a due bill is not a negotiable note. When a note or 
draft is made due a certain number of days after date the day it is issued is 
not counted, but the day upon which it falls due is, and in every such note 
or draft, by the custom of merchants, there are certain additional days allow¬ 
ed to the maker before he is obliged or expected to pay, and before any finals 
demand can be made upon him. These days are three in number and are 
called days of grace. They attach to every bill or note having time to run 
unless they are specially restricted and taken out by inserting “ without 
grace ” or words to that effect. 

At common law, when the last day of grace falls on Sunday or any pub¬ 
lic holiday, the bill is due on the preceding day and demand must be made 
on that day, but if the bill is payable by its terms without grace, then the 
demand should be made the day after instead of the day before. In two 
or three states bills falling due on Sunday, are by statute made payable on 
Monday. 

Bills of exchange, notes and checks may either be made negotiable or 
or non-negotiable. * They can be transferred if they contain the words of 
negotiability “ or order,” “ or bearer,” but it is doubtful if their mere omis¬ 
sion will restrict the negotiability of the bill. A note to be non-negotiable 
should read, “ I promise to pay to A B and him only,” or words to that 
effect. 

A non-negotiable note can be transferred only by assignment and must 
be sued on in the name of the payee, and is subject to all the equities ex¬ 
isting between them whether the holder has notice of them or not. When 
a person receives a non-negotiable note or an account by assignment 
he should immediately notify the debtor of such assignment, and it will 
then be subject only to the equities existing prior to the notice. The 
holder of a negotiable note who received it before due in ordinary course of 
business, for a valuable consideration, and without notice, can, if the in¬ 
dorsement of the payee is genuine, sue or collect it in his own name, and 
if there was no consideration for the note given by the original payee, it 
will make no difference to a bona fide holder for value if received before 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


486 

due. If a note, however, is given in payment o. a gambling debt, it is 
void and cannot be collected by any indorsee receiving it for value and 
without notice. A note may be negotiated after due, and can be collected 
if it has not been already paid, provided it was given for a sufficient con¬ 
sideration, but the maker may interpose any defenses to the note that he 
could have interposed against the original payee at the time the note was 
due, if it is in the hands of a purchaser after maturity. If the note is nego¬ 
tiated before due, the holder runs no risk by keeping it until after due, as 
against the maker. If a note is held by a purchaser after maturity, the 
maker cannot offset a simple account against the payee arising out of an¬ 
other transaction; the offset must be against the note itself as payment, 
want of consideration, release, etc. If a note or bill of exchange is paid at 
maturity it cannot subsequently be negotiated to bind the maker or acceptor, 
but if a bill is paid before due by the acceptor or maker, or taken up by an in¬ 
dorser and subsequently gets into circulation by accident or otherwise, it can 
be collected by a holder for value who receives it in due course of busi¬ 
ness, before due and without notice. 

INDORSEMENT.—Where a bill of exchange, note or check is made 
payable to bearer, or “A B or bearer,” the legal title passes by delivery 
only, but where it is made payable to the “ order of A B ” or “to A B 
or order,” it is transferable only by indorsement. There are two forms of 
indorsement, indorsement in blank and indorsement in full. A bill is in¬ 
dorsed in blank when the payee simply indorses or writes his name across 
the back of the bill, note or check, and it is then transferable merely by 
delivery, by any subsequent holder, the same as a bill payable to bearer. 
The name may be written anywhere on the back of the bill, but for con¬ 
venience it ought to be written at right angles with the reading on the 
opposite side, and about one inch from the left hand margin, as this affords 
the best opportunity for a number of subsequent indorsements. An in¬ 
dorsement in full is where the payee writes, “ Pay to the order of C D,” 
above his own signature. The bill must then be indorsed by “ C D,” the 
holder, before it can be again negotiated, and he may indorse in blank or 
in full. If the payee indorse in blank all the subsequent indorsements will 
in effect be blank indorsements, although full in form. The payee may re¬ 
strict the transfer of a bill, or deprive it of its negotiable quality by writing 
“ pay to C D only,” or “ for my use,” over his indorsement. The holder 
of a bill indorsed in blank is privileged to make the indorsement a full one 
by making himself the indorsee over the payee’s blank indorsement. A 
bill should not be indorsed until about to be delivered to the indorsee. 

LIABILITIES OF INDORSERS.—Any payee, indorsee, holder or 
other person, whether having interest or not, who indorses or writes his name 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 


487 


on the back of any bill of exchange, note or check, becomes liable to pay 
the same if the maker or acceptor fails or refuses to do so, or in case of a 
draft, if the drawee refuses to accept when thereto requested. 

A holder may, however, indorse in such a manner as to incur no liability, 
and still pass the legal title to the bill by writing “ without recourse,” or 
words to that effect, over his signature. 

A party indorsing a bill guarantees the signature of the prior indorsers, 
and especially that of the payee or first indorser, and also that it came into 
his hands in good faith for sufficient consideration. He also undertakes to 
pay the bill in case the maker fails to do so at maturity. The payee being 
of necessity the first indorser is the party who finally has the bill to pay in 
case the maker fails, but in case it is a bill of exchange he recovers of the 
drawer. Each indorser contracts to pay the holder, and an indorser com¬ 
pelled to pay can recover of the prior indorsers, if there are any. 

Where a party writes his signature on the back of a note before it is in¬ 
dorsed by the payee, he is generally held as a joint maker; in some States, 
however, he is held to be a guarantor, and in others the intention of the 
parties governs. 

If he is held as joint maker, or guarantor, he is not entitled to notice of 
the dishonor of the bill. 

A bill or note may be indorsed by an authorized agent and the principal 
will be bound, and a bill held by a bank or other corporation may be in¬ 
dorsed by the cashier. If the holder dies the indorsement may be made by 
the administrator. If payable to two executors it should be indorsed by 
both, and all agents, assignees, and administrators should indorse in their 
representative capacity, otherwise they will bind themselves. 

A partner may indorse for the partnership, but if payable to two parties, 
not partners, it must be indorsed by both. A note or bill held by a mar¬ 
ried woman should be indorsed by the husband. 

DEMAND, PAYMENT, PROTEST, AND NOTICE.—Nothing dis¬ 
charges the acceptor of a draft and the maker of a note except payment, 
according to their terms, at maturity. If payment is not demanded the 
parties primarily liable must pay if demand is made subsequently, and be¬ 
fore the bill is barred by the statute of limitation. If a bill is made pay¬ 
able at a bank, and the funds are provided to meet it at maturity, and no 
demand is made, the acceptor will escape payment only so far as he was 
injured by such non-presentation and demand. Demand is not made to 
bind the maker, he is already bound, but it is made on the day of maturity 
to enable the holder to fix the liability of the drawer and indorsers in case 
the maker or acceptor fails or refuses to pay, and in order to avail himself 
of this privilege the holder must make a demand of the proper party on the 


488 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


very day the bill falls due. A demand made on the day before or the day 
after maturity is void, and the indorsers are released if no demand is made 
on the exact day of maturity. If the holder, by his own neglect, the negli¬ 
gence of others, or by inevitable accident, is prevented from demanding 
payment on the day of maturity, he loses all recourse against the indorsers. 
If the bill has been lost, mislaid, or stolen, the owner should make a demand 
on a copy of the bill, and at the same time have ready and tender to the 
maker a good and sufficient bond, saving him harmless from any damage he 
may suffer by reason of the bill not being surrendered at the time of pay¬ 
ment. 

When a bill is made payable a certain number of days after date, the 
whole number is counted, exclusive of the date of the bill, and the three 
days of grace added. The bill is due on the last day of grace, and not 
before, and the maker has the whole of the last day of grace to pay it in. 
If a note is payable a certain number of months after date, calender, and 
not lunar, months are counted, and three days added. A bill dated January 
i, 1879, at oneyear, will fall due January 4, 1880. 

If a bill is made by its terms payable at a bank, demand must be made 
at that bank during banking hours, as the day closes with the closing of the 
bank in such cases. A mere memorandum by an indorser or other party 
advising demand at a certain bank, may be disregarded, and the bill may 
be demanded at the business office of the maker during business hours. 
The same rules that apply in demanding payment, govern in demanding 
acceptance. If a bill is drawn on a stranger to the drawer who has no 
reason to suppose it will be accepted, the holder may treat it as dishonored. 
If the maker or acceptor has notoriously absconded, any attempt at demand 
will be excused, or if made payable in a city where the maker does not 
reside, and no place of payment specified. 

Bankruptcy or insolvency of the maker or acceptor of will not excuse 
demand, and the bill must be presented on the day of maturity. In case 
the maker dies, demand should be made upon his legal representative. In 
any case where the holder is excused from making a demand he may pro¬ 
ceed to bind the indorsers the same as though demand had actually been 
made. 

Where to demand.— Where the bill is made payable at any specified 
place, demand at that place will be sufficient. If made payable generally, 
the holder should exercise due diligence in hunting up the maker by going 
to his place of business, and if not found, by going to his place of residence 
at such an hour as he will be likely to be at home. If the maker has re¬ 
moved, a reasonable effort should be made to find where he is living. In 
case he cannot be found- at his residence or place of business, it will be 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 


489 

safe to leave a copy of the bill and state where and when the holder can be 
found, or at what hour he will call again during the day. Such notice, or 
any other, should be left at the person’s own residence or office, and not 
next door. 

How to demand.— 1st. In case of a foreign bill of exchange any 
party having the legal possession of a bill of exchange may make a valid 
demand on the drawer for acceptance, and if it is a foreign bill, and if ac¬ 
ceptance is refused, in order to bind the drawer and indorsers, he must place 
the bill in the hands of a Notary, who will again demand acceptance, and 
if it is refused, he will protest it. The drawer and indorsers must now be 
notified, and this may be done by the owner of the bill, but it has of late 
years been customary for the Notary Public to notify the parties. 

A bill may be accepted by a stranger, who is not a party to it, for the 
honor of the drawer after it has been protested, and this is called an “ ac¬ 
ceptance supra protest.” It is done by adding “supra protest” to the 
words of acceptance, and the drawer will be bound thereby. An acceptor 
supra protest should notify the drawer of his acceptance. When a bill thus 
accepted falls due, the holder is required to make a formal demand on the 
drawee, just as though he had accepted it, and if he refuses to pay it must 
again be protested, and the acceptor supra protest, and the indorsers noti¬ 
fied of the dishonor of the bill. 

When a foreign bill falls due and payment to the holder is refused, de¬ 
mand must be made by a Notary, and the bill protested or the drawer and 
indorsers will be released. Notice must also be served. 

In case of an inland bill or note demand must be made, and notices 
served, the same as with a foreign bill. If there is a refusal to pay, but 
protest is not demanded in order to bind the drawer or indorsers, the notices 
being sufficient, and all the acts necessary to bind all parties can be per¬ 
formed by the holder, or some private person for him. If the bill is, how¬ 
ever, for a considerable amount it is better to have it protested as the cer¬ 
tificate, under seal, by the Notary will be received in the courts as evidence 
that demand was made at the time stated, otherwise the demand must be 
proved up by the holder, and it may be difficult for him to do so if some 
time has elapsed. 

The possession of a note or bill of exchange by a Notary or other per¬ 
son implies the right to collect it, and in order to constitute a valid demand 
it must be produced with the genuine indorsement of the payee or his ad¬ 
ministrator or assignee, or accompanied by some order of the court author¬ 
izing its collection. 

When a note is signed by two or more parties, who are not partners, if 
demanded by one and refused it, must be presented to all the rest, or the 
the indorsers will be released. 


490 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Where a party has indorsed before the payee, it will be safe to demand 
payment of him as a maker, and also notify him as an indorser; if he is then 
held to be a joint maker, the indorsers are bound, and if he is held to be an 
indorser, he is nailed by the notice. 

The holder can refuse any thing short of money payment in full. He 
cannot give time without the consent of the indorsers, otherwise they will 
be released. 

OF NOTICE.—Whenever a bill, note or check is dishonored, notices 
must be served on the indorsers on the following day, or they will be releas¬ 
ed, and the notice should contain such a description of the bill as to give 
the indorser no reasonable chance to mistake it. 

Where the drawer, acceptor, or maker, has been guilty of such acts as to 
excuse demand, notices to the indorsers cannot be omitted; like acts on the 
part of the indorser will, however, excuse service. In case the residence of 
the indorser is unknown a fair effort should be made to find him and get 
service. An indorser living in the same town or city as the holder or maker 
is entitled to personal service. A notice by mail will be sufficient if it 
reaches him in time, but the burden of proof rests on the holder to show that 
it was delivered to him. Notices should be mailed to out of town indors¬ 
ers before noon of the day following the one on which demand was made 
and refused. If the address is unknown the notice should be mailed as 
soon as it is ascertained. 

The holder of dishonored paper can notify and hold whichever indorser 
he pleases by omitting to notify the balance, or he can bind all by notifying 
all, and if he notifies all his act enures to the benefit of all, but if he notifies 
only one, and recovers from him, the prior indorsers who are not notified 
are released. One indorser receiving notice may notify the prior indorsers, 
and he has one day to send his notice, and it binds them. 

Personal service should be had if possible, and if the indorser is not at 
home, the notice should be left with some person in his employ, or with a 
member of his family, and not in an adjoining office, as there is no 
law to compel a man to stick his neighbor on his indorsement by gratuit¬ 
ously performing the duties of a Notary 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.—Where negotiable paper is left for 
collection with a bank, or other agency, and by neglect of their officers the 
indorsers are released, they will be liable. 

Where an Express Company, through the fault of an employe, takes a 
bill for collection in a town where they have no agent or Notary, they can¬ 
not renounce the collection without giving the owner ample time to collect 
his bill through other parties. 

A person may sign a note or check, leaving the date and amount blank, 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 


49 1 


and he will be bound by the amount inserted by the party to whom he in¬ 
trusted it, and in a like manner he will be bound if he indorses a bill of 
exchange or note in blank. 

In sending negotiable paper by mail it should always be indorsed in full. 
If a bank draft, which is payable on demand, a treasury warrant, or a check, 
has several blank indorsements, they should all be converted into full in¬ 
dorsements before being sent by mail, as they can be cashed by any one 
who can be identified at a bank. If there is not room to write the words 
of restriction over the name, strike them out altogether, unless the bill is a 
great deal better by having them on. Suppose the bill is indorsed in blank 
by “ A B” and “ C D,” over the signature of “ A B” write “ Pay to the 
order of C D,” if it is then indorsed by “ E F” and “ H G,” and there 
is no room over “ E F,” strike him out, and over “ C D” write, “ Pay to 
the order of “ H G,” etc., etc. 

If a note is left for collection in the hands of one having no other interest 
than that of an agent for collection, and it becomes necessary for him to 
indorse it, he should indorse “ without recourse,” otherwise he becomes 
liable on the bill if it is withdrawn and gets into circulation again before 
maturity. 

A note made for the purpose of discount should be made payable to the 
person who is to indorse, and after indorsing in blank he returns it to the 
maker, who offers it for discount. 

When a debtor gives the note of a third person for the debt, it is not 
absolute payment of the debt unless there is a special agreement to that 
effect, the remedy on the debt is, however, suspended until the maturity of 
the paper, and if it is dishonored it is the duty of the holder to fix the liability 
of the indorsers by notice. 

A note or bill dated on Sunday is not void if it is delivered on another day, 
or if the consideration therefor was given some other day. 

A note should not be given in blank to a stranger or person in irregular 
business, and when the body of a note or bill is written in a hand other 
than that of the maker, care should be taken not to leave it in such shape 
that a larger amount can be inserted than was intended. Irregular travel¬ 
ing agents have sometimes obtained the signatures of men of means who 
supposed they were signing a simple contract for an agency, the contract or 
appointment being pasted to the paper on which the signature was obtained, 
and then stripped off and a note written or printed above the maker’s name. 
Such a note in the hands of a holder in good faith can be collected. No care¬ 
ful business man will give his note in a case where he would not be willing to 
pay the cash if he had it to spare. 

If the payee or holder inserts any words on the face of the note above 


49 2 


BRAND S CYCLOPEDIA. 


the signature of the maker, as “ with interest,” etc., it cannot be collected. 

Where a lender takes a commission on the loan which, added to the 
interest agreed upon, brings it above the legal rate, the contract is tainted 
with usury. 

When one of several indorsers receives notice of the dishonor of a bill 
he should notify the prior indorsers unless certain that they have already 
been notified. 

LIENS.—A lien at common law is the right of a party to retain the pos¬ 
session of property until some charge thereon is satisfied. 

Where the right of lien accrues to a party, he must hold on to the property 
or his lien is lost If he parts with the possession he relinquishes his lien 
and he will then have only the right of an action at common law for the 
debt. 

A statutory lien is where the right of a lien is given against property out 
of possession, and the party wishing to obtain such lien is held to a strict 
performance of the acts required by the statute to perfect the lien. The 
slightest deviation will generally be fatal to the lien. 

CONTRACT OF BAILMENT.—A bailment is the delivery of goods by 
one party, who is called the bailor, to another person, called the bailee, 
upon a contract, express or implied, that the trust shall be faithfully per¬ 
formed by the bailee. 

There are three principles which apply to the execution of the trust: ist, 
Those in which the act to be performed by the bailee are for the exclusive 
benefit of the bailor or some other person. 2nd, Where the execution of 
the trust is for the benefit of the bailee alone. 3d, Where it is for the ben¬ 
efit of both parties, or one of them and a third party. 

In the first case the bailee is liable only for gross neglect; if, however, 
goods are left with a party without compensation for safe-keeping and there 
is a refusal to deliver them when a demand is made by the proper person, 
he will be held to a greater amount of care than previous to demand, as the 
goods are wrongfully withheld. 

Where the execution of the trust is for the benefit of the bailee alone, as 
in case of a party borrowing an article for his own use without compensa¬ 
tion, great care must be exercised in keeping safely the thing borrowed and 
the bailee will be liable for slight neglect. 

Where an article is pledged it is for the benefit of both parties and only 
ordinary care is requisite in safely keeping the goods pawned. 

Where negotiable paper is left in the hands of a party soliciting collec¬ 
tions, he will be liable for the slightest negligence whereby the indorsers are 
released. 

Common carriers may be the carriers of goods, or persons, or both, and 


LAWS OF BUSINESS. 


493 


are bound to receive and transport passengers or property when requested, 
if the price of the transportation is offered. They are obliged to exercise 
the greatest possible amount of care, and will be liable for the slightest neg¬ 
ligence. If the carrier is guilty of negligence, he will be liable, although the 
carelessness of the passenger may in a slight degree contribute. 

When property is taken to be transported, it must be safely delivered and 
the carrier will only be excused when the loss is occasioned by act of God 
or public enemies. 

If a common carrier wishes to limit his liability he must bring the limita¬ 
tion to the actual notice of the passenger, or owner of the goods transported. 

CHATTLE MORTGAGES, ETC.—A chattel mortgage without pos¬ 
session of the property mortgaged is, at common law, of doubtful validity, 
but in most states where there is a regular system of recording deeds and 
mortgages, a chattel mortgage gives a lien on the property without possession, 
if it contains a full description of it and is regularly placed upon record in the 
same manner as conveyance of realty. 

DEEDS OF TRUST.—A deed of trust is a conveyance of the title to a 
trustee having no actual interest, and is generally made to secure the payment 
of a note or notes therein described, and if the payment is not made, the trus¬ 
tee, at the request of the legal holder of the note, may sell the property at auc¬ 
tion, after giving due notice as specified in the deed, and apply the proceeds 
to the payment of the expenses and the note. The balance of the note can 
be collected of the maker or indorsers. Deeds of trust on personal property 
are valid if recorded, the possession remaining in the hands of the original 
owner, and if he disposes of the property by giving a bill of sale without re¬ 
citing the prior deed, he will be liable criminally. 

BILLS OF SALE.—A sale of personal property without a notorious and 
continuous change of possession, is void as to creditors. A bill of sale on 
record will not help the matter. There must be an entire change of pos¬ 
session or the sale will be set aside as fraudulent. 


494 


brand’s CYCLOPEDIA 


INTEREST TABLE AT 6 PER CENT. 


Time . 

$1 

$2 

$3 

$4 

$5 

$(> 

$7 

$8 

$9 

$10 

i Day. 











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3 “ 










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4 “ 








. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

5 “ 






. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

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1 

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. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

7 “ 





1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

8 “ 




1 

1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

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1 

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. 2 

. 2 

ii “ 

j 


1 

1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

12 “ 



1 

• 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

13 “ 



1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

14 “ 



1 

• 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

“ 


1 

. 1 

• 1 

• 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 2 

• 3 

16 “ 


1 

. 1 

• 1 

• 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 2 

. 3 

17 “ 


1 

. 1 

• 1 

• 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

18 “ 


1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

19 “ 


1 

. 1 

• 1 

• 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

20 “ 


1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

21 “ 


1 ! 

. 1 

. 1 

• 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

22 “ 


1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

. 4 

23 “ 


1 

. 1 

. 2 

• 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

24 “ 


1 

. 1 

. 2 

• 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

25 “ 

26 “ j 


1 

1 i 

. 1 

. 1 

• 2 

• 2 

• 2 

• 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

* 4 

27 “ j 

28 “ 


1 

1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 2 

• 2 

• 2 

• 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

29 “ 


1 

. 1 

• 2 

• 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

. 10 

1 Month 

2 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 2 

' 4 

• 3 

* 5 

• 3 
. 6 

• 4 

• 7 

• 4 
. 8 

• 5 

• 9 

3 “ 

. 2 

• 3 

• 5 

• 6 

• 8 

• 9 

. 11 

. 12 

. 14 

• I S 

4 “ I 

. 2 | 

• 4 

. 6 

• 8 

• 10 

. 12 

. 14 

. 16 

. 18 

. 20 

5 •“ 

• 3 1 

• 5 

. 8 

• 10 

• 13 

• 

. 18 

. 20 

• 2 3 

• 2 5 

6 “ 

• 3 | 

. 6 

• 9 

• 12 

• 15 

. 18 

. 21 

. 24 

• 2 7 

• 3 ° 

7 “ 1 

8 “ ! 
- « 

' 1 ! 

• 4 j 

• 7 
. 8 

. 11 

. 12 

• 14 

• 16 

. 18 

. 20 

. 21 

. 24 

• 2 5 
. 28 

. 28 

• 3 2 

• 3 2 

• 3 6 

• 35 
. 40 

9 

• 5 

• 9 

. 14 

• 18 

• 2 3 

. 27 

• 3 2 

•36 

. 41 | 

• 45 

10 “ j 

• 5 

. 10 

• 15 

• 20 

* 2 5 

• 30 

• 35 

• 40 

• 45 

• 5 ° 

11“ 

1 Year. | 

. 6 

. 6 

. 11 

. 12 

• 17 
. 18 

• 22 

.24 

. 28 ; 

• 3 ° 

• 33 

• 36 

• 39 
. 42 

• 44 
.48 j 

• 5 o 

* 54 

• 55 
. 60 













































































INTEREST TABLES, 


495 


INTEREST TABLE AT 6 PER CENT. 


Time. 

$20 

$30 

$40 

$50 

$60 

$70 

$80 

$90 

$100 

$ 1,000 

1 Day. 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

•17 

2 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

•33 

3 “ 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

•50 1 

4 “ 

. 1 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

. 6 

• 7 

.67 

5 “ 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

. 8 

•83- 

6 “ 

. 2 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

• 9 

.10 

1.00* 

7 “ 

. 2 

• 4 

• 5 

, 6 

• 7 

. 8 

• 9 

.11 

.12 

1.17 

8 “ 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 

• 7 

. 8 

• 9 

.11 

.12 

•*3 

i -33 

9 “ 

• 3 

• 5 

. 6 

. 8 

• 9 

.11 

• 12 

.14 

•i 5 

1.50 

IO “ 

• 3 

• 5 

• 7 

. 8 

.10 

.12 

•13 

•15 

•17 

1.67 

ii “ 

• 4 

. 6 

• 7 

• 9 

.11 

•13 

•i 5 

•17 

.18 

1.83 

12 “ 

• 4 

. 6 

. 8 

.10 

.12 

.14 

.16 

.18 

.20 

2.00 

13 “ 

• 4 

• 7 

• 9 

.11 

•13 

•i 5 

.17 

.20 

.22 

2.17 

14 “ 

• 5 

• 7 

• 9 

.12 

.14 

.16 

.19 

.21 

•23 

2-33 

i 5 “ 

• 5 

. 8 

.10 

•13 

•i 5 

.18 

.20 

•23 

•25 

2.50 

16 “ 

• 5 

. 8 

.11 

•13 

.16 

.19 

.21 

.24 

•27 

2.67 

17 “ 

. 6 

• 9 

.11 

.14 

•17 

.20 

•23 

.26 

.28 

2.83 

18 “ 

. 6 

• 9 

.12 

•i 5 

.18 

.21 

.24 

•27 

•30 

3.00 

19 “ 

. 6 

•IO 

•i 3 

.16 

.19 

.22 

•25 

' -29 

•32 

3-17 

20 “ 

• 7 

.10 

•13 

•i 7 

.20 

•23 

.27 

•30 

•33 

3-33 

21 “ 

• 7 

• H 

.14 

.18 

.21 

•25 

.28 

•32 

•35 

3 - 5 a 

22 “ 

• 7 

• ii 

•i 5 

.18 

.22 

.26 

.29 

•33 

•37 

3- 6 7 

23 “ 

. 8 

.12 

•i 5 

.19 

•23 

•27 

• 3 1 

•35 

.38 

3.83 

24 “ 

. 8 

• 12 

.16 

.20 

.24 

.28 

•32 

•36 

.40 

4.00 

25 “ 

. 8 

•13 

.17 

.21 

•25 

•29 

•33 

.38 

.42 

4.17 

26 “ 

• 9 

•13 

.17 

.22 

.26 

• 3 ° 

•35 

•39 

•43 

4-33 

27 “ 

• 9 

•14 

.18 

•23 

•27 

•32 

•36 

.41 

•45 

4 - 50 ’ 

28 “ 

• 9 

• 14 

.19 

•23 

.28 

•33 

•37 

.42 

•47 

4.67 

29 “ 

.10 

•15 

.19 

•24 

•29 

•34 

•39 

•44 

.48 

4 - 8 j 

1 lonm 

.10 

•15 

.20 

•25 

•30 

•35 

.40 

•45 

• 5 ° 

5.0a 

2 “ 

.20 

• 3 ° 

.40 

• 5 ° 

.60 

.70 

.80 

.90 

1.00 

10.00 

3 “ 

•30 

•45 

.60 

•75 

• 9 ° 

1.05 

1.20 

i -35 

1.50 

15.00 

4 “ 

.40 

.60 

.80 

1.00 

1.20 

1.40 

1.60 

1.80 

2.00 

20.00 

5 “ 

• 5 o 

•75 

1.00 

J -25 

1.50 

!-75 

2.00 

2.25 

2.50 

25.00 

6 “ 

.60 

.90 

1.20 

*• 5 ° 

1.80 

2.10 

2.40 

2.70 

3.00 

30.00 

7 “ 

.70 

1.05 

1.40 

I *75 

2.10 

2-45 

2.80 

3 -i 5 

3 - 5 ° 

35 -oo 

8 “ 

.80 

1.20 

1.60 

2.00 

2.40 

2.80 

3.20 

3.60 

4.00 

40.00 

9 “ 

.90 

i -35 

1.80 

2.25 

2.70 

3 -i 5 

3.60 

4 -o 5 

4 - 5 ° 

45.00 

10 “ 

1.00 

1.50 

2.00 

2.50 

3.00 

3 - 5 ° 

4.00 

4 - 5 ° 

5.00 

50.00 

11 “ 

I.IO 

1.65 

2.20 

2-75 

3 - 3 ° 

3-85 

4.40 

4-95 

5 - 5 ° 

55 -oo 

t Year. 

1.20 

1.80 

2.40 

3.00 

3.6° 

4.20 

4.80 

5-40 

6.00 

60.00 








































brand’s cyclopedia, 


49 6 


INTEREST TABLE AT 7 PER CENT. 


Time . 


$2 

$3 

$4 

$!> 


$7 

$8 

$9 

$10 

i Day. 











2 “ 











yy U 

o 









. 1 

• 1 

4 “ 







. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 1 

5 “ 






. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 1 

•6 “ 





. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 1 

7 “ 




. 1 

. I 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 1 

8 “ 




. 1 

. I 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 1 

• 2 

9 “ 



. 1 

. 1 

. I 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

• 2 

iO “ 



. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 2 

II “ 



. 1 

. 1 

. I 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 2 

12 “ 



. 1 

. 1 

. I 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 2 

• 2 

“ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 2 

• 3 

14 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. I 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

15 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

16 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

17 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

• 3 

• 3 

18 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

• 3 

' 4 

29 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

• 3 

• 3 

* 4 

20 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• O 

. 3 

• 4 

* 4 

21 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

. 3 

• 4 

' 4 

22 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

. 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

23 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

. 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

24 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

. 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 5 

25 .“ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

. 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 5 

26 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

. 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

:2 7 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

. 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

28 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

. 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

29 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

. 4 

• 5 

• 5 

• 6 

1 Monti 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 4 

. 4 

• 5 

• 5 

• 6 

2 “ 

. 1 

. 2 

• 4 

• 5 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

• 9 

. 11 

• 12 

3 “ 

. 2 

• 4 

• 5 

• 7 

• 9 

. 11 

. 12 

• 14 

. 16 

• 18 

4 “ 

. 2 

• 5 

• 7 

• 9 

. 12 

• 14 

. 16 

• *9 

. 21 

• 23 

5 “ 

• 3 

. 6 

• 9 

. 12 

• 

. 18 

. 20 

• 2 3 

. 26 

• 29 

6 “ 

• 4 

• 7 

. 11 

• r 4 

. 18 

. 21 

• 2 5 

. 28 

• 3 2 

* 35 

7 “ 

• 4 

. 8 

. 12 

. 16 

. 20 

• 2 5 

. 29 

• 33 

• 37 

• 41 

8 “ 

• 5 

• 9 

. 14 

• J 9 

• 2 3 

. 28 

• 33 

• 37 

. 42 

• 47 

9 “ 

• 5 

. 11 

. 16 

. 21 

. 26 

• 3 2 

• 37 

. 42 

• 47 

• 53 

10 “ 

. 6 

. 12 

. 18 

• 2 3 

. 29 

• 35 

. 41 

• 47 

• 53 

• 58 

11 “ 

. 6 

• *3 

• 19 

. 26 

• 3 2 

• 39 

• 45 

• 5 i 

• 58 

♦ 64 

1 Year. 

• 7 

• 14 

. 21 

. 28 

• 35 

. 42 

. 49 

.56 

* 63 

• 70 



















































INTEREST TABLES, 


497 


INTEREST TABLE AT 7 PER CENT. 


Time. 

$20 

$30 

$40 

$50 

$60 

$70 

$80 

$00 

$100 

$1,000 

i Day. 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

•19 

2 “ 

1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

•39 

3 “ 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

. 6 

•58 

4 “ 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

.78 

5 “ 

. 2 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

• 9 

.10 

•97 

6 “ 

. 2 

• 4 

• 5 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

• 9 

.11 

.12 

1.17 

7 “ 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 

• h 

. 8 

.10 

.11 

.12 

.14 

1.36 

8 “ 

• 3 

• 5 

. 6 

. 8 

• 9 

.11 

.12 

.14 

.16 

1.56 

9 “ 

• 4 

• 5 

• 7 

• 9 

.11 

.12 

.14 

.16 

.18 

T -75 

io “ 

• 4 

. 6 

. 8 

.10 

.12 

.14 

.16 

.18 

.19 

1.94 

ii “ 

• 4 

. 6 

• 9 

.11 

•13 

•i 5 

•17 

.19 

.21 

2.14 

12 “ 

• 5 

• 7 

• 9 

.12 

.14 

.16 

.19 

.21 

•23 

2-33 

i 3 “ 

• 5 

. 8 

.10 

•13 

•i 5 

.18 

.20 

•23 

•25 

2-53 

14 “ 

• 5 

. 8 

.11 

.14 

.16 

.19 

.22 

•25 

♦27 

2.72 

i 5 “ 

. 6 

• 9 

.12 

•i 5 

.18 

.20 

•23 

.26 

.29 

2.92 

16 “ 

. 6 

• 9 

.12 

.16 

.19 

.22 

•25 

.28 

• 3 i 

3 - 11 

17 “ 

• 7 

.10 

•13 

•17 

.20 

•23 

.26 

•30 

•33 

3 - 3 1 

18 “ 

• 7 

.11 

•14 

.18 

.21 

•25 

.28 

•32 

•35 

3 - 5 ° 

19 “ 

• 7 

.11 

•i 5 

.18 

.22 

.26 

•30 

•33 

•37 

3-69 

20 “ 

. 8 

.12 

.16 

.19 

•23 

•27 

• 3 i 

•35 

•39 

3-89 

21 “ 

. 8 

.12 

.16 

.20 

•25 

.29 

•33 

•37 

.41 

4.08 

22 “ 

• 9 

•13 

•i 7 

.21 

.26 

• 3 ° 

•34 

•39 

•43 

4.28 

23 “ 

• 9 

•13 

.18 

.22 

•27 

• 3 1 

•36 

.40 

•45 

4-47 

24 “ 

• 9 

.14 

.19 

•23 

.28 

•33 

•37 

.42 

•47 

4.67 

25 “ 

.10 

•i 5 

.19 

.24 

.29 

•34 

•39 

•44 

•49 

4.86 

26 “ 

.10 

•i 5 

.20 

•25 

• 3 ° 

•35 

.40 

.46 

• 5 i 

5.06 

27 “ 

.11 

.16 

.21 

.26 

•32 

•37 

.42 

•47 

•53 

5-25 

28 “ 

.11 

.16 

.22 

.27 

•33 

.38 

•44 

•49 

•54 

5-44 

29 “ 

.11 

•i 7 

•23 

.28 

•34 

•39 

•45 

• 5 i 

• 5 6 

5-64 

1 lontn 

.12 

.18 

•23 

.29 

•35 

.41 

•47 

•53 

.58 

5.83 

2 “ 

•23 

•35 

•47 

•58 

.70 

.82 

•93 

1 -°5 

I - I 7 

11.67 

3 “ 

•35 

•53 

.70 

.88 

1.05 

1.23 

1.40 

1.58 

1 -75 

i 7 - 5 ° 

4 “ 

•47 

.70 

•93 

1.17 

1.40 

1.63 

1.87 

2.10 

2-33 

23-33 

5 “ 

.58 

.88 

1.17 

1.46 

i -75 

2.04 

2.33 

2.63 

2.92 

29.17 

6 “ 

.70 

1.05 

1.40 

r -75 

2.10 

2-45 

2.80 

3 - I S 

3 - 5 o 

35 -°° 

7 “ 

.82 

1.23 

1.63 

' 2.04 

2-45 

2.86 

3*27 

3.68 

4.08 

40.83 

8 “ 

•93 

1.40 

1.87 

2-33 

2.80 

3-27 

3-73 

4.20 

4.67 

46.67 

9 “ 

1.05 

i- 5 8 

2.10 

2.63 

3 -i 5 

3.68 

4.20 

4-73 

5-25 

5 2 - 5 o 

10 “ 

1.17 

i -75 

2-33 

2.92 

3 - 5 ° 

4.08 

4.67 

5-25 

5.83 

58.33 

11 “ 

1.28 

i -93 

2-57 

3.21 

3-85 

4.49 

5 -i 3 

5.78 

6.42 

64.17 

1 Year. 

1.40 

2.10 

2.80 

3 - 5 ° 

4.20 

4.90 

5.60 

6.30 

7.00 

70.00 




































498 


brand’s cyclopedia, 


INTEREST TABLE AT 8 PER CENT. 


Time . 

$1 

$2 

$3 

$4 

$5 

$6 

$7 

$S 

$9 

$10 

i Day. 











2 “ 











3 “ 








. 1 

. 1 

• 1 

4 “ 






. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 1 

• 1 

5 “ 





. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 1 

• 1 

6 “ 




. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 1 

• 1 

• 1 

7 “ 




. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 1 

• 2 

8 “ 



. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 2 

• 2 

9 “ 



. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

• 2 

• 2 

• 2 

IO “ 



. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

• 2 

• 2 

• 2 

ii “ 



. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

• 2 

• 2 

• 2 

12 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 2 

• 2 

• 3 

13 “ 


• 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 2 

• 3 

• 3 

14 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

2 

. 2 

. 2 

' 3 

• 3 

*5 “ 


• 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

* 3 

• 3 

16 “ 


• 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

* 3 

• 4 

17 “ 


• 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

2 

. 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

18 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

2 

. 2 

2 

. 3 

• 3 

* 4 

• 4 

19 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

20 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

. 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

21 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

. 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 5 

22 “ 


. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

. 5 

23 “ 

. 1 

• 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

. 3 

. 4 

• 4 

• 5 

. 5 

24 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

. 3 

. 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

25 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

. 3 

. 4 

• 4 

• 5 

. 6 

26 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

. 3 

. 4 

• 5 

• 5 

. 6 

27 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

. 4 

. 4 

• 5 

• 5 

. 6 

28 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

. 4 

. 4 

• 5 

. 6 

. 6 

29 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 3 

. 3 

. 4 

. 5 

• 5 

. 6 

. 6 

i Monti 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

• 3 

. 3 

. 4 

. 5 

• 5 

. 6 

. 7 

2 “ 

. 1 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 

. 7 

8 

. 9 

. 11 

. 12 

• x 3 

3 “ 

. 2 

• 4 

. 6 

. 8 

. 10 

. 12 

. 1 4 

. 16 

. 18 

. 20 

4 “ 

• 3 

• 5 

. 8 

. 11 

. 13 

. 16 

. *9 

. 21 

. 24 

. 27 

5 “ 

• 3 

• 7 

. 10 

• !3 

. i 7 

. 20 

. 2 3 

• 27 

• 3 ° 

• 33 

6 “ 

• 4 

. 8 

. 12 

. 16 

. 20 

. 24 

. 28 

• 32 

• 3 6 

. 40 

7 “ 

• 5 

• 9 

. 14 

• *9 

• 23 

. 28 

. 33 

• 37 

. 42 

• 47 

8 “ 

• 5 

. ii 

. 16 

. 21 

• 27 

. 3 2 

. 37 

• 43 

. 48 

• 53 

9 “ 

. 6 

. 12 

. 18 

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.48 

• 54 

. 60 

10 “ 

• 7 

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. 20 

. 27 

• 33 

• 4 ° 

. 47 

• 53 

. 60 

. 67 

11 “ 

• 7 

• *5 

. 22 

• 2 9 

• 37 

. 44 

. 5 1 

• 59 

. 66 

• 73 

1 Year. 

. 8 

. 16 

. 24 

• 32 

. 40 

• 4 » 

• 5 6 

. 64 

.72 

. 80 














































INTEREST TABLES, 


499 


INTEREST TABLE AT 8 PER CENT. 


Tune. 

$20 

#30 

$40 

#30 

$60 

$70 

$so 

$90 

$100 

$1,000 

1 Lay. 


. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

.22 

2 “ 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

•44 

3 “ 

. 1 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

. 6 

• 7 

.67 

4 “ 

. 2 

• 3 

. 4 

• 4 

• 5 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

• 9 

.89 

5 “ 

. 2 

• 3 

. 4 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

• 9 

.10 

.11 

1.11 

6 “ 

• 3 

. 4 

. 5 

. 7 

. 8 

• 9 

.11 

12 

•*3 

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7 “ 

• 3 

• 5 

. 6 

. 8 

• 9 

.11 

.12 

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8 “ 

• 4 

• 5 

. 7 

. 9 

.11 

.12 

.14 

.16 

.18 

1.78 

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• 4 

. 6 

. 8 

.10 

.12 

.14 

.16 

.18 

.20 

2.00 

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. 4 

. 7 

• 9 

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.16 

.18 

.20 

.22 

2.22 

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• 5 

. 7 

.10 

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.20 

.22 

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12 “ 

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. 8 

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• 13 

.16 

.19 

.21 

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2.67 

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. 6 

• 9 

.12 

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• i 7 

.20 

•23 

.26 

• 2 9 

2.89 

14 “ 

. 6 

• 9 

.12 

.16 

.19 

.22 

•25 

.28 

•31 

3 - 11 

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♦ 7 

.10 

.13 

.17 

.20 

•23 

.27 

.30 

•33 

3-33 

16 “ 

. 7 

• ii 

.14 

.18 

.21 

•25 

.28 

.32 

• 3 6 

3-56 

17 “ 

. 8 

• ii 

.15 

.19 

•23 

.26 

• 3 ° 

• 34 

.38 

3-78 

18 “ 

. 8 

.12 

.16 

.20 

.24 

.28 

•32 

.36 

.40 

4.00 

19 “ 

. 8 

•i 3 

.17 

.21 

•25 

• 3 ° 

•34 

•38 

.42 

4.22 

20 “ 

• 9 

•i 3 

.18 

.22 

.27 

• 3 1 

• 3 6 

.40 

•44 

4.44 

21 “ 

• 9 

• i 4 

.19 

.23 

.28 

•33 

•37 

.42 

•47 

4.67 

22 “ 

.10 

•i 5 

.2° 

.24 

.29 

•34 

•39 

•44 

•49 

4.89 

23 “ 

.10 

•i 5 

.20 

.26 

• 3 1 

• 3 6 

• 4 1 

.46 

• 5 i 

5 -n 

24 “ 

•i 1 

.16 

.21 

.27 

• 3 2 

•37 

•43 

.48 

• 53 

5-33 

25 “ 

.n 

• i 7 

.22 

.28 

•33 

•39 

•44 

• So 

.56 

5-56 

26 “ 

.12 

• i 7 

.23 

.29 

•35 

.40 

.46 

.52 

.58 

5.78 

27 “ 

.12 

.18 

• 24 

• 3 ° 

• 3 6 

.42 

.48 

• 54 

.60 

6.00 

28 “ 

.12 

.19 

.25 

• 3 1 

•37 

•44 

• 5 ° 

.56 

.62 

6.22 

29 “ 

.13 

.19 

.26 

• 3 2 

•39 

•45 

• 5 2 

.58 

.64 

6.44 

1 Monti 

•13 

.20 

.27 

•33 

.40 

•47 

•53 

.60 

.67 

6.67 

2 “ 

.27 

• 4 ° 

•53 

.67 

.80 

•93 

1.07 

1.20 

1-33 

13-33 

3 “ 

• 4 ° 

.60 

.80 

1.00 

1.20 

1.40 

1.60 

1.80 

2.00 

20.00 

4 “ 

•53 

.80 

1.07 

r -33 

1.60 

1.87 

2.13 

2.40 

2.67 

26.67 

5 “ 

.67 

1.00 

1-33 

1.67 

2.00 

2-33 

2.67 

3 -°° 

3-35 

33-33 

6 “ 

.80 

1.20 

1.60 

2.00 

2.40 

2.80 

3.20 

3 - 6 ° 

4.00 

40.00 

7 “ 

•93 

1.40 

1.87 

2-33 

2.80 

3-27 

3-73 

4.20 

4.67 

46.67 

8 “ 

1.07 

1.60 

2.13 

2.67 

3.20 

3-73 

4-27 

4.80 

5-33 

53-33 

9 “ 

1.20 

1.80 

2.40 

3 -oo 

3.6° 

4.20 

4.80 

5.40 

6.00 

60.00 

10 “ 

i -33 

2.00 

2.67 

3-33 

4.00 

4.67 

5-33 

6.00 

6.67 

66.67 

11 “ 

1.47 

2.20 

2-93 

3-67 

4 - 4 ° 

5-13 

5.87 

6.60 

7-33 

73-33 

[ Year. 

1.60 

2.40 

3.20 

4.00 

4.80 

5.60 

6.40 

7.20 

8.00 

80.00 









































500 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


< 


INTEREST TABLE AT 10 PER CENT. 


Time. 

$1 

$2 

$3 

$4 

$i> 

$6 

$7 

$S 

$9 

$10 

1 Day. 

2 “ 

3 “ 

4 “ 

5 “ 

6 “ 

7 “ 

8 “ 

9 “ 

10 “ 

11 “ 

12 “ 

13 “ 

14 “ 

15 “ 

16 “ 

17 “ 

18 “ 

19 “ 

20 “ 

21 “ 

22 “ 

23 “ 

24 “ 

25 “ 

26 “ 

27 “ 

28 “ 

29 “ 

1 Monti 

2 “ 

3 “ 

4 “ 

5 “ 

6 “ 

7 “ 

8 “ 

9 “ 

10 “ 

11 “ 

1 Year. 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 
. 6 

• 7 
. 8 
. 8 

• 9 
. 10 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

• 5 
. 7 
. 8 
. 10 

. 12 

• 1 3 

• *5 

• 17 

. 18 
. 20 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

T 

. I 

. I 

. I 

. I 

. I 

. I 

. I 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

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. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 5 
. 8 

. 10 

• I 3 

• 15 

. 18 

. 20 

• 2 3 

• 25 
. 28 

• 30 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 
. 3 

• 3 
. 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 7 
. 10 

• J 3 

. 17 

. 20 

• 23 

. 27 
. 3 o 

• 33 

• 37 
.40 

. I 

. I 

. I 

. I 

. I 

. I 

. I 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 
. 4 
. 4 
. 4 
. 4 
. 8 

• *3 
. *7 
. 21 

• 25 

• 2 9 

• 33 

• 38 
. 42 
. 46 

• 5 o 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

, 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 
. 4 

• 4 
. 4 

• 4 
. 4 

• 4 
. 5 

• 5 
. 5 

• 5 
. 10 

• 

. 20 

• 25 

• 3 ° 

• 35 
. 40 

• 45 

• 5 o 

• 55 
. 60 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

• 5 

• 5 

• 5 
. 6 
. 6 
. 12 

. 18 

• 23 

. 29 

• 35 

• 4 i 

• 47 

• 53 

• 58 
. 64 
. 70 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 
. 4 
. 4 

• 5 

• 5 

• 5 

• 5 
. 6 

. 6 
. 6 
. 6 
. 6 

• 7 

• i 3 
. 20 

• 27 

• 33 
. 40 

• 47 

• 53 
. 60 

• 67 

• 73 
. 80 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 
. 4 
. 4 
. 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

• 5 

• 5 
. 6 
. 6 
. 6 
. 6 

• 7 

• 7 

• 7 

• 7 
. 8 

• i 5 

• 23 

• 3 ° 

• 3 8 

• 45 

• 53 
. 60 
. 68 

• 75 
•83 

. 90 j 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

• 4 

• 5 

• 5 

• 5 
. 6 
. 6 
. 6 
. 6 

• 7 

• 7 

• 7 
. 8 
. 8 
. 8 
. 8 

• 17 

• 25 

• 33 
. 42 

• 5 o 
•58 

• 67 

• 75 
.83 

• 92 
[. 00 





















































INTEREST TABLES, 


501 


INTEREST TABLE AT 10 PER CENT. 


Time. 

$20 

$ 30\$40 

$50 

$60 

$70 

$80 

$90 

$JOO 

$ 1,000 

1 Day. 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 2 

. 2 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

.28! 

2 “ 

. 1 

. 2 

. . 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 4 

• 5 

. 6 

• 5 <> 

3 “ 

. 2 

• 3 

• 3 

• 4 

• 5 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

• 8 

.83 

4 “ 

. 2 

• 3 

. 4 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

• 9 

.10 

.11 

1.11 

5 “ 

• 3 

• 4 

. 6 

• 7 

. 8 

.10 

.11 

•*3 

.14 

!-39 

6 “ 

• 3 

• 5 

. 7 

. 8 

.10 

.12 

•13 

•*5 

•17 

1.67 

7 “ 

• 4 

. 6 

. 8 

.10 

.12 

.14 

.16 

.18 

.19 

1.94 

8 “ 

• 4 

• 7 

• 9 

.11 

•13 

.16 

.18 

.20 

.22 

2.22 

9 “ 

• 5 

. 8 

.10 

•13 

•15 

.18 

.20 

• 2 3 

•25 

2.5O 

10 “ 

. 6 

. 8 

.11 

• 14 

•17 

.19 

.22 

• 2 5 

.28 

2.78' 

11 “ 

. 6 

• 9 

.12 

•15 

.18 

.21 

.24 

.28 

• 3 i 

3.06 

12 “ 

• 7 

.10 

.13 

• i 7 

.20 

•23 

•27 

•30 

•33 

3-33 

13 “ 

• 7 

.11 

.14 

.18 

.22 

•25 

.29 

•33 

•36 

3 - 6 i 

14 “ 

. 8 

.12 

.16 

.19 

•23 

.27 

• 3 1 

•35 

•39 

3.89 

i 5 “ 

. 8 

•13 

.17 

.21 

•25 

.29 

•33 

•38 

.42 

4.17 

16 

• 9 

•i 3 

.18 

.22 

•27 

♦ 3 1 

• 3 6 

.40 

•44 

4-44 

17 “ 

• 9 

.14 

.19 

.24 

.28 

•33 

.38 

•43 

•47 

4.72 

18 “ 

.10 

•i 5 

.20 

•25 

• 3 ° 

•35 

.40 

•45 

• 5 o 

5.00 

19 “ 

.11 

.16 

.21 

.26 

•32 

•37 

•42 

.48 

•53 

5.28 

20 « 

.11 

• i 7 

.22 

.28 

•33 

•39 

.44 

• 5 o 

.56 

5 - 5 ^ 

21 “ 

.12 

.18 

•23 

.29 

•35 

• 4 1 

•49 

•53 

.58 

5-83 

22 “ 

.12 

.18 

• 24 

• 3 1 

•37 

•43 

•49 

•55 

.61 

6.11 

23 “ 

•i 3 

.19 

.26 

• 3 2 

•38 

•45 

• 5 1 

•58 

.64 

8-39 

24 “ 

•13 

.20 

.27 

•33 

.40 

•47 

•53 

.60 

.67 

6.67 

25 “ 

.14 

.21 

.28 

•35 

•42 

•49 

• 5 6 

i 3 

.69 

6.94 

26 “ 

.14 

.22 

.29 

• 3 6 

•43 

• 5 1 

.58 

i s 

.72 

7.22 

27 “ 

.15 

.23 

• 3 ° 

.38 

•45 

•53 

.60 

.68 

•75 

7 - 5 ° 

28 “ 

.16 

•23 

• 3 1 

♦39 

•47 

•54 

.62 

• 7 o 

•78 

7.78 

29 “ 

.16 

.24 

• 3 2 

.40 

.48 

• 5 6 

.64 

•73 

.81 

8.06 

1 Momn 

.17 

•25 

•33 

• 4 2 

• 5 ° 

•58 

.67 

•75 

.83 

8-33 

2 “ 

•33 

• 5 ° 

•67 

.83 

1.00 

1.17 

1-33 

i. 5 o 

1.67 

16.67 

3 “ 

• 5 ° 

•75 

1.00 

i - 2 5 

*• 5 ° 

M 5 

2.00 

2 - 2 5 

2.50 

25.00 

4 “ 

.67 

1.00 

i *33 

1.67 

2.00 

2-33 

2.67 

3 -°° 

3-33 

33-33 

5 “ 

.83 

1.25 

1.67 

2.08 

2.50 

2.92 

3-33 

3-75 

4.17 

41.67 

6 “ 

1.00 

i- 5 ° 

2.00 

2 - 5 ° 

3-oo 

3 - 5 ° 

4.00 

4 - 5 o 

5.0° 

50.00 

7 “ 

1.17 

i -75 

2-33 

2.92 

3 - 5 ° 

4.08 

4.67 

5- 2 5 

5-83 

58-33 

8 “ 

i -33 

2.00 

2.67 

3-33 

4.00 

4.67 

5-33 

6.00 

6.67 

66.67 

9 “ 

i- 5 ° 

2.25 

3 -°° 

3-75 

4 - 5 ° 

5-25 

6.00 

6.75 

7 - 5 ° 

75.00 

10 “ 

1.67 

2.50 

3-33 

4.17 

5.00 

5.83 

6.67 

7 - 5 o 

8-33 

8333 

11 “ 

1.83 

2-75 

3- 6 7 

4.58 

5 - 5 ° 

6.42 

7-33 

8.25 

9.17 

91.67 

1 Year. 

2.00 

3 -°° 

4.00 

5.°° 

6.00 

7.00 

8.00 

9.00 

10.00 

100.00 























































































































■ 






























































INDEX TO CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

Accidents on water - - 465 

Alder - 415 

Almond cream - - 386 

Animals, chaff in eyes - 16 

doctoring sick - 8 

draft, training - 16 

flies, repelling from - 17 

fattening - • 51 

gestation - 8 

shelter for 63 

terms denoting external parts 7 
tethering and securing 13 

warts on - - 17 

in winter - - 17 

Ants - 320 

Apples, for domestic animals - 62 

keeping - - 191 

packing in barrels - 62 

root grafting of the - 344 

for stock - - 330 

thinning - - 330 

use of - - - 63 

winter - 56 

a la turque - - 403 

fritters - - 355 

Apoplexy, to prevent - - 439 

treatment - - 439 

Aquarium - - 257 

Artichokes, boiled - - 353 

Artichoke, culture of - 237 

Asthma - 44 b 

Autum leaves, to preserve - 405 


Bacon and cabbage 

- 


355 

Bacon, how to keep 

- 


191 

Baking Powder 

- 


394 

Bag-holders 

- 


65 

Bag, marking 

- 


119 

Barley, culture of 

- 


65 

Barn doors, fastening open 


119 

Barns, wash for 

- 


119 

Barnyards, paving 

- 


119 

Baskets 

- 


165 

Beans, culture of 

- 


238 

to cook 

- 


357 

training lima 

- 


2 37 

Beaver skins, to dress 

- 


279 

Bed bug 

- 


321 

Bed rooms 

- 


165 

Beef, to bake rump of 

- 


355 

to roast 

- 


355 

"to roast-stew 

- 


356 

to stew 

- 


356 

to cook 

- 


357 

steaks broiled 

- 


35b 


PAGE. 


Beef, curing 

- 

192 

corned, how to 

- 

192 

how to make cheap 

66 

how to keep sweet 

192 

Beef tea 

- 

357 

Bees - 

- 

291 

artificial swarms - 

- 

293 

breeding 

- 

292 

cement for bee hives 

- 

295 

contrivance for hiving 

- 

296 

protector 

- 

294 

robbing 

- 

295 

loss of queen 

- 

295 

moth 

- 

294 

most profitable bee to keep 

296 

to Italianize a colony 

- 

297 

stings 

- 

294 

surplus honey boxes 

- 

294 

wintering 

- 

296 

the workers 

- 

292 

swarming 

■' • 

292 

Beeswax, to prepare 

- 

120 

Beetle handles 

- 

120 

Benzole 

- 

275 

Bird houses, cheap 

- 

120 

lime 

- 

259 

to mount 

- 

279 

to preserve 

- 

192 

Biscuit 

- 

378 

Bites of serpents 

- 

459 

Bites and stings of insects 

- 

459 

Blackberry or wild blackberry 

- 

4i5 

Blackberries, culture of 

- 

33i 

straightening up 

- 

33i 

Bladders, to prepare 

- 

120 

Blanc mange 

- 

390 

Bleeding from wounds - 

- 

463 

Blight in fruit trees, to cure 

- 

33i 

Blisters, on the feet 

- 

459 

Board fences, facing 

- 

121 

Boards, to give a beautiful appearance 

166 

Boils 

- 

458 

Boots, to prevent ripping 

- 

166 

Boquets, preserving 

- 

2 5i 

Bread, Boston brown - 

- 

379 

brown 

- 

379 

corn 

- 

380 

family 

- 

378 

graham - 

- 

379 

how to make good 

- 

376 

potato 

- 

37« 

rice 

- 

378 

rye 

- 

379 

sago 

- 

379 

stale to make fresh 

- 

167 





504 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Bread, to keep moist 

- 

- 

380 

Caramel, chocolate 

. 

380 

without yeast 

- 

- 

404 

Carbuncles 

- 

458 

Brain fever, treatment 

- 

- 

438 

Carpets, sweeping 

- 

168 

Brass, to clean 

- 

- 

166 

Carpet, to sweep 

- 

168 

Brass and copper vessels, to clean 

166 

Carpets, stair 

- 

184 

Brick hearth, to black 

- 

- 

167 

Carpet, to put down 

- 

169 

Brick oven, how to build 

- 

121 

Carriages, care of 

- 

67 

Bronchitis 

- 

- 

447 

oiling 

- 

122 

Brushes, hair 

- 

- 

173 

Cart, hand 

- 

122 

Budding, annular 

- 

- 

425 

Catarrh 

- ■ 

443 

spring 

- 

- 

426 

Cattle, choked - 

- 

12 

terminal 

- 

- 

424 

colic 

_ 

12 

Bulbs, in the house 

- 

- 

251 

feeding pumpkin seed to 

18 

Bunions 

- 

- 

437 

Cattle Stables, dimensions of 

- 

122 

do 

- 

- 

461 

Cattle, foul in the foot 

- 

11 

Bunns, lemon 

- 

- 

380 

garget or caking of the bag 

11 

Burdock 

- 

• 

414 

hooking 

- 

18 

Burns or scalds 

- 

- 

458 

horn ail - 

- 

11 

Buildings, painting 

- 

- 

57 

hoven 

- 

11 

Bushes, hook for pulling up 

- 

6 7 

how to tell age of 

- 

17 

Butter 

- 

- 

53 

lice on 

- 

11 

Butter-making, rules for 

- 

3 i 3 

to make them thrive in winter 

20 

to clarify 

- 

- 

357 

to prevent cow sucking herself 

12 

to color 

- 

- 

406 

probang for choked 

- 

18 

packing 

- 

- 

3 H 

racks 

- 

19 

to restore tainted 

- 

193 

sore teats 

- 

11 

to restore rancid 

- 

3 i 5 

training them to jump 

- 

20 

Philadelphia 

- 

- 

3 H 

ties 

- 

69 

winter 

- 

- 

3 i 5 

tie 

- 

19 

workers 

- 

- 

3 i 4 

wintering 

- 

20 

why don’t it come 

- 

3 H 

wounds in 

- 

20- 

Buttons, in washing 

- 

- 

167 

Cauliflower, cooking the 

- 

358 

Cabbage, cold slaw 

- 

- 

357 

Celery, securing 

- 

238 

heading in winter 

- 

239 

Cellar, drains 

- 

122 

preserving 

- 

- 

192 

Cellars, ventilating 

- 

123 

salad 

- 

- 

357 

Cement, alabaster 

- 

285 

to stew 

- 

- 

357 

architectural 

_ 

285 

Cakes, buckwheat 

- 

- 

382 

armenian 

. 

285 

buttermilk 

- 

. 

382 

Cements, Glues Pastes, etc., 

_ 

285 

chocolate 

- 

- 

383 

for bee hives 

- 

295 

cocoanut 

- 

- 

382 

Cement, botany bay 

- 

287 

corn 

- 

- 

384 

bruyer’s water 

- 

287 

delicate 

- 

- 

3*3 

building 

- 

285 

flannel 

- 

• 

383 

china, glass, etc. 

- 

286 

fruit 

- 

- 

383 

Chinese 

- 

286 

ginger 

- 

- 

383 

curd 

- 

286 

gold 

- 

- 

3§3 

English Roman 

- 

287 

greaser for 

- 

- 

3«3 

for floors 

- 

287 

jackson sponge 

- 

- 

384 

French 

- 

288 

jelly 

- 

- 

384 

to fasten leather to metal 

288 

lemon 

- 

- 

384 

German 

_ 

288 

to know when done 

- 

382 

iron 

_ 

288 

making - 

- 

- 

381 

iron boilers 

- 

288 

poor man’s 

- 

- 

384 

leather or shoemaker’s 

288 

rice 

- 

- 

3«5 

liquid 

- 

289 

sponge - 

- 

- 

3 £ 5 

optician’s 

- 

289 

wedding 

- 

- 

3 o 5 

for steam pipes 

- 

289 

white 

- 

- 

385 

for stoves 

- 

289 

white cup 

- 

- 

385 

for stopping cracks in jars 

289 

Calico Furniture, to clean 

- 

167 

Turkish 


28Q 

how to wash 


167 

Chain Pumps, to mend without taking 

Calving, time for heifers 

- 

20 

up 

- 

124 

Cancer - 

- 

- 

460 

Charcoal, pulverized 

- 

169 

Candles, how to make 

- 

- 

I67 

Cherries, dried 

- 

192 




INDEX 

TO 

CONTENTS. 


505 

Charlotte, apple 

_ 

3S0 

Corn, new 



Cherry Trees, young 

- 

333 

to prevent birds from pulling up 70 

Chicken Broth - 

- 

358 

seed 

- 

53 

cullets of 

- 

358 

shocks 

_ 

74 

Pot-Pie 

- 

358 

Corn Field, tape line in 

_ 

69 

Chickens, to fry 

- 

358 

Corn Fodder, binding - 

- 

70 

Chicken-pox, swine-pox, 

horn-pox, 


curing 

- 

70 

hives, etc. 

- 

434 

curing and securing 

72 

Chilblains 

- 

437 

Corn House, plan of 

- 

127 

Chilblain Lotion 

- 

437 

Corn, Green, preserving for winter use 

193 

Russian remedy 

- 

437 

Corn and Pork, price of 

- 

71 

Chimneys, cement around 

- 

124 

Cornstalks, steaming 

- 

70 

to stop leakage around 

124 

Corns - 

- 

437 

on fire 

- 

169 

Costiveness 

. 

449 

on fire, to extinguish 

124 

Cotton in Linen, to detect 

- 

170 

Chills and Fever 

- 

456 

Cough Remedies 

- 

444 

Choking 

- 

463 

Cows, to cure kicking - 

- 

21 

Cholera, 

- 

45 1 

food for milk 

- 

21 

Cholera Morbus, 

- 

450 

garget, or inflamed udder in 

23 

Cider, how to keep sweet 

- 

192 

for milk, beans and meal 

21 

Cistern, contents of 

- 

125 

for milk, squashes 

- 

21 

filtering cheap - 

- 

126 

rules for managing 

- 

22 

to make 

- 

124 

stabling 

- 

23 

pumps, to prevent freezing 

Jf 5 

sucking themselves 

- 

23 

worms and lice in 

- 

169 

to winter village 

- 

21 

Clothes, catching fire 

- 

465 

Cracks of Doors, muffling in winter 

127 

Clothes Pins, to preserve 

- 

193 

Cranberries, culture of - 

- 

332 

Clothing, marking 

- 

176 

to keep 

- 

193 

Clocks, to clean 

- 

126 

Cranberry Jelley 

- 

359 

levelling 

- 

126 

Cranberry Sauce 

- 

359 

Clover Roots, utility of 

- 

68 

Cream Gauge and Milk Lactometer 

316 

Coal, bin for 

- 

120 

Cream, burnt 

- 

386 

shovel for 

- 

126 

cake 

- 

403 

Cock, choice of a 

- 

23 

fritters - 

- 

385 

Cockroaches, 

- 

321 

puffs 

- 

386 

Codfish Balls 

- 

359 

toast 

- 

386 

Coffee, how to grind 

- 

193 

bleached 

- 

38b 

how to make good 

- 

359 

codling 

- 

387 

Coffee-Pot, to choose 

- 

179 

cookies 

- 

385 

Colds - 

- 

443 

custard 

. 

386 

Cold feet 

- 

437 

hasty 

- 

387 

Colic - 

- 

449 

Italian 

- 

387 

Colic, Bilious 

- 

449 

lemon 

- 

3§7 

painter’s - 

- 

449 

pine apple 

- 

387 

Coloring, black 

- 

407 

raspberry 

- 

388 

blue - 

- 

407 

strawberry 

- 

388 

brown 

- 

407 

to whip 

- 

388 

green 

- 

407 

Crows, to destroy 

- 

161 

purple 

- 

407 

Crystalizing Flowers, Plants, 

etc. 

128 

yellow 

- 

407 

Crumpets 

388 , 

404 

Colts, to prevent gnawing reigns 

28 

Crusher, Clod 

- 

68 

Consideration 

- 

473 

Cucumber Salad 

- 

359 

Contracts 

- 

47 i 

Cucumbers, Melons, etc., protecting 

239 

Cookies 

- 

385 

Cups, rice 

- 

388 

Cork, withdrawing a 

- 

127 

Curd, Naples 

- 

388 

Corn, canning 

- 

193 

Curd and Cream 

- 

389 

cultivating 

- 

69 

Currants, drying ana preserving in 


cutting up 

- 

54 

bunches 

- 

*94 

for fodder 

- 

7 i 

Custard, Chocolate 

- 

3S9 

harvesting 

- 

73 

lemon 

- 

389 

how to shovel from wagon 

7 i 

potata 

- 

389 

husking - 

- 

56 

rice 

- 

389 

husker 

- 

7 i 

savory 

- 

389 

markers - 

- 

73 

Death, apparent from drowning 

464. 



brand’s cyclopedia. 


506 


Death, apparent from freezing - 

438 

Eyes, weeping - 

- 

461 

fumes of char¬ 


wild hairs in 

- 

461 

coal 

464 

Fading, to prevent colors 

- 

172 

hanging - 

465 

Fainting, treatment 

- 

443 

lightning 

464 

Falling of the Womb 

- 

454 

noxious vapors 

463 

Farm, how to make it pay 

- 

35 

Deer Skins, oil dressing 

279 

Farms, to increase the price of 


79 

Delirium Tremens, treatment - 

439 

Farmers’ Tools - 

- 

80 

Diabetes - 

453 

Farming, economy in - 

- 

77 

Diarrhoea - 

45 ° 

to make profitable 

- 

78 

chronic 

45 ° 

improvement in 

- 

78 

Diptheria, symptoms 

445 

February, work for 

- 

37 

sulphur for - 

446 

Feed, steamer for cooking 

- 

81 

Dirt Scrapers - 

128 

Feeding Hay to Animals 

- 

82 

Dish-water and Soap-suds 

171 

regularity in 

- 

80 

Dishes, washing 

171 

Felon - 

- 

460 

Door Fastening 

128 

Fences and Stone Walls 

- 

51 

Knobs - 

172 

Fences, cheap - 

- 

8^ 

Latches - 

129 

movable 

- 

83 

Sagging - 

129 

rail, to build - 

- 

130 

Doughnuts - 390, 404 

Fever, bilious 

- 

456 

Dress, working - 

189 

congestive 

- 

456 

Draining - - - 

50 

typhoid - 

- 

455 

Draining, advantage of - 

75 

sores 

- 

456 

best form of tile for - 

76 

Fields, Grain 

- 

58 

lengthens the season - 

75 

Figs, culture of - 

- 

333 

Drains, Board - 

130 

Fire Blight in the Pear - 

- 

334 

Drill Marks, advantage of 

76 

Fire Proof, to render cloth 

- 

405 

Drunkenness, Chamber’s remedy for 

439 

Fire Places, to wash marble 

- 

176 

Drying House, for fruit 

195 

how to act in case of 

- 

130 

Ducks, to roast - 

360 

to prevent hay stacks catching 

83 

Ducks, Wild, to roast - 

376 

Fish, to boil 

- 

362 

Dumplings - 

360 

to choose - 

- 

362 

baked apple 

360 

Fish Sauce 

- 

362 

Dust Pan - 

171 

Fish-Hooks, how to fasten to line 

268 

Dwarf Apples - 

329 

charms or secret art of catching 

267 

Dyeing, black (fast) on woolen yarn 

408 

Fishing, baits for 

- 

266 

cannelle, dark 

407 

floats 

- 

268 

claret on cotton yarn - 

408 

ground bait for 

- 

266 

green, billiard on cloth 

408 

hooks - 

- 

268 

olive, carmelite 

407 

lines 

- 

268 

orange crome on linen 

407 

Fishing, paste for baits 

- 

269 

rose on linen - 

408 

reels 

- 

268 

tete de negre - 

407 

rods, 

- 

269 

yellow cannelle 

407 

with artificial fly 

- 

266 

yellow gold on linen - 

407 

Fits - 

- 

441 

Dysentery, Bloody Flux, symptoms 

45 i 

Epileptic 

- 

441 

Dyspepsia - 

448 

raging 

- 

441 

Ear Ache - 

462 

Flannel, how to wash - 

- 

172 

Ears, accident to the 

462 

Flat Irons 

- 

172 

neuralgia of 

462 

Flies, House 

- 

320 

wax in 

462 

Float - 

- 

39 ° 

Eggs, how to color 

172 

Floats, for fishing 

- 

268 

pickled - - - 

195 

Floating Island 

- 

39 o 

to keep - 

195 

Floor Cloths, to clean - 

- 

172 

mulled - 

360 

Floriculture 

- 

245 

omelette - 

361 

Flour, how to select 

- 

379 

to poach - 

361 

Flower Beds, position of 

- 

252 

scrambled 

362 

Flower Pots, in rooms - 

. 

252 

Erysipelas - 

435 

Flowering* to prolong - 

- 

252 

Evergreens, transplanting 

76 

Fly-paper, stickey 

- 

406 

Eyes, inflamed - 

461 

Fly Trap 

- 

320 

inflamed lids 

461 

Fodder, green and dried 

- 

85 

stye - 

461 

running out of - 

- 

61 





INDEX TO CONTENTS. 


f 


507 


Foot Muff, how to make - 131 

Fork, a horse - 85 

Forks, wooden for stables - 85 

Forest Leaves, for litter, - 92 

Fowl, to broil - 362 

how to cook old - - 362 

and Chickens, to roast - 362 

sauce for - - - 362 

stewed with onions - 363 

Fowls, choice of 362 

fattening - 23 

Foxes, to trap - 259 

Frames, gilt - - - 173 

Frauds, the statute of - - 474 

Fritters - 390 

Frostbite - 438 

Fruit, Drying - - - 198 

to keep worms from dried 197 

Fruits, keeping - - - 197 

Trees, mulching - 335 

Fruits in Cans, preserving - 197 

Trees, to prevent from splitting 334 
Fruit Trees, to destroy sprouts - 334 

Galling or Chafing - - 463 

Game, to keep - - - 199 

Garden, to make, etc. - - 219 

quantity seed to plant - 241 

Gardens, compost for - - 242 

late in the summer - 240 

Gate, self-shutting - - 132 

small farm - - 131 

Gates, Farm - 84 

Geese, to choose - - 363 

Ginger Crackers - - 386 

Nuts 391 

Snaps - 398 

Glair of Eggs, - 404 

Glass, how to cut 
hand - 

how to wash 
Glue, marine - 

Spalding’s 
water proof 
Gonorrhoea - 

Goose, boiled - 

roasted - - - 

Gooseberries - 

dried 

Gopher Traps, how to make 
Gout - 


132 

132 
173 

289 

290 
290 
454 
3 6 3 

363 

335 
199 
260 
456 

Grafts, cutting - - 336, 422, 424 

plum 336 

Grafting Knives - - 337 

New Tops on old Trees 430 

Grain Scoop - - - 133 

Grr es, keeping - - 200 

overbearing - - 337 

pyramidal training of - 338 

root grafting - - 344 

rules for pruning - . 340 

Grass, how to keep from growing in 

walks - 87 

sowing seed without grain 87 

Gravel - 45 2 


Grease for Carriages - 86 

axles, how to make - 86 

Greasing Wagons - 86 

Grease, for wheels - - 133 

Grindstones, tarring - - 133 

Ground, stubble - - ,57 

Gum, how to make superior - 286 

Gun-shot wounds - - 459 

Haddock, to fry - - 363 

Halter for orchards - - 87 

Hams, curing without sugar - 201 

to cure - 201 

keeping - 201 

to keep during summer - 200 

to preserve - - 202 

from flies - 200 

Hands, to keep clean and smooth 173 

Hanging Baskets, house plants, etc. 252 

Harness, dressing - - 87 

oiling - - 133 

and Boots, preserving 134 

Hard Water, to soften - - 406 

Harrows, for stony land - 88 

Hay, clover, how to make 68 

Heart-burn, remedy - - 44 & 

Hedges, trimming- - 90 

Heels, knitting - - 134 

Hemlock Beer, to make for the sick 202 

Hen Manure -» 89 

Hen, to lay in winter - 24 

nest egg - 24 

to prevent eating eggs - 24 

Herbs, dried - 202 

Herpes, symptoms and treatment 43 ^ 

Hiccough, treatment - - 44 2 

Highways - 89 

Hinges, creaking - - 174 

Hints, general - - 53 * 5 & 

Hoarseness - 445 

Hoe, weeding - 89 

Hog, board floor for 

fattening in warm and cold 
weather 
parsnips for 

Horn, to stain - - - t 

to weld - 

Horse Raddish, to have in keeping 
Horse Cleaner - 

hitcher, movable 
Horses, balky - 

breaking halters 
bruising oats for 
cold or catarrh - 
colic and inflammation of bowels 
cutting feed for - 
distemper or horse ail - 
drawing on the halter - 
good and poor - 
heaves - 

how to learn to canter - 
over-reaching 
scours or diarrhoea 
scratches 
shying - 


25 

24 

25 
406 
406 

175 

90 

J 34 

28 

29 

29 

10 

9 
28 

11 

28 

91 
10 

29 

29 

10 
10 

30 




jo8 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Hotch Potch Scotch soup 

- 

363 

Maple Sugar 

- 

203 

House Plants, hints about 

. 

255 

March, work for 

- 

38 

Humors 

- 

458 

Matches, friction 

- 

173 

blunting and Fishing 

- 

259 

Material for Repairs 

- 

138 

Hydrophobia, treatment 

- 

440 

May, work for - 

- 

43 

Hysterics 

- 

454 

Mead or Metheglin 

- 

403 

Ice, to freeze 

- 

469 

Meadows 

- 

5 i 

to keep 

- 

202 

top dressing - 

- 

53 

houses 

- 

135 

Measles, symptoms 

- 

433 

filling 

- 

135 

Measuring, acres in a field 

- 

139 

Implements of Horticulture 

- 

35 i 

corn in a crib 

- 

138 

Ink, cheap and excellent 

- 

174 

hay - 

- 

138 

gold . 

- 

174 

height of trees 

- 

139 

indelible 

- 

174 

implements 

- 

141 

spots, to remove - 

- 

174 

cattle 

- 

139 

Inks, black how to make 

- 

173 

timber in the tree 

- 

143 

Insects and Farmers’ Enemies 

- 

299 

Measurement, Self, rules for 

- 

143 

Irrigation, experiment in 

- 

9 i 

Meat, to keep fresh in winter 

- 

203 

Itch, barber’s 

- 

436 

pickle 

- 

203 

treatment - 

- 

436 

protect from fly - 

- 

176 

Ivory Knife Handles, to prevent crack 

- 

when to cut 

- 

203 

ing 

- 

202 

Menstruation, painful - 

- 

454 

January, work for 

- 

35 

Mice, - 

- 

3 i 9 

Jaundice, treatment 

- 

448 

Milk, to preserve 

- 

210 

Jelly, currant 

- 

194 

from souring 

- 

210 

July, work for - 

- 

47 

sour, to restore - 

- 

210 

Jumbles 

- 

390 

test richness of - 

- 

176 

cocoanut 

- 

39 o 

Milking, regularity in - 

- 

317 

June, work for - 

- 

45 

in silence 

- 

317 

Kalsomining 

- 

278 

young cows 

- 

316 

Kisses - 

- 

402 

Milking Clean - 

- 

317 

Kitchen odors - 

- 

175 

stool 

- 

316 

slops and Tomatoes 

- 

242 

Mince-Pie Meat 

. 

210 

Knife-board, improved - 

- 

135 

Mink, to trap 

- 

260 

Knives, to clean 

- 

175 

Mirrors, spoiling 

- 

176 

Ladders, sharp feet for - 

- 

135 

Molasses, to improve 

- 

177 

Lambs, fattening 

- 

30 

Moles, to destroy 

- 

260 

weaning 

- 

30 

remedy for 

- 

322 

Lampskins, to prepare for Ladies’ 


Moths - 

- 

321 

overcoats 

- 

280 

to protect cloth against 

- 

177 

Lamp Chimneys, to prevent cracking 

175 

and Roach Exterminator 

- 

406 

lighters 

- 

135 

Mothers’ Marks - 

. 

438 

wick 

- 

175 

Mucilage, good - 

- 

290 

Land, clean 

- 

9 i 

Muffins - 

_ 

39 1 

Lard, cured with soda - 

- 

203 

Mulching, winter 

_ 

35 ° 

Lawn, how to have a good 

- 

9 i 

Mumps - 


444 

Leather, to clean 

- 

175 

Mush, graham - 

_ 

398 

gild or silver - 

- 

281 

Mushrooms, boiled 

_ 

363 

gloves - 

- 

136 

to stew 

. 

364 

oiling - 

- 

281 

Mushroom catsup 

- 

3 6 + 

to restore softness to 

- 

x 75 

Muskrats, to catch without traps 

261 

tanning 

- 

281 

home-made traps for 

- 

261 

make waterproof 

- 

175 

to skin 

- 

281 

Lightning Rods - 

- 

136 

Muskrat Skins, tannine with fur on 

281 

Lilies, propagation of - 

- 

252 

Mustard, French 

• 

364 

Limitations, the statute of 

- 

475 

superior table - 

• 

364 

Linen, gloss on - 

- 

175 

Mustiness, to relieve casks of 

- 

406 

Lock-Jaw, treatment 

- 

441 

Mutton Broth 


365 

Logs and Planks, to prevent splitting 136 

roast saddle of 

- 

3 6 4 

splitting 

- 

137 

to stew leg of 


364 

Lye, to make 

- 

175 

Nails, Nuts, Screws and Bolts 


145 

Manure - 

58, 61 

Neck, criss in - 


461 

liquid 

- 

92 

stiff neck 


461 

Manuring in Winter 

- 

62 

Nettle Rash, treatment - 

- 

435 



INDEX TO CONTENTS. 


Neuralgia 
Nightmare - 
Nipples, sore - 
Nose, bleeding of 

foreign bodies in 
November, work for 
Nutmegs, how to select 
Nuts, screwing on 
October, work for 
Oil Cloths, to keep looking well 
drying and boiled - 
neats foot - 
Onions, boiled - 

field culture of the 
to keep - 
roasted 

Opossums, trap for 
Orchards - 

draining 
planting new - 
registering 

work for each month - 
Osier, for bands 
Ox Bows, fastenings 
Oyster Patties - 
pie - 

soup - - - 

stew - - - 

to bake, boil, or roast - 
to fry 
scalloped 

Paint, - - - 

blue - 

green - 

lead color 
red - 

materials for making 
making white 
to make rough smooth 
to make old dry - 
coal tar, or tar 
mixing - 

economical 
knots to kill 

Paint Brushes, care of - 
Paint and Whitewash, for barns 
Painting - 

houses, the best time for 
plaster of Paris and gypsum in 
and tanning 

Paper Hangings, to clean 
Papered Walls, to extract grease from 
Parties, incapable of contracting 
to a contract 
Partnership - 
Partridge Pie - 
Partridges, to broil 
to roast 

Paste, for scrap books - 
common - 
flour - 
hard - 
for fruit or meat pies 
Pasture, mowing 


442 

443 
455 
462 
462 

57 

177 

144 

56 
177 
271 
133 

365 

92 

210 

365 

26l 

49 

333 

57 
339 
323 

92 

145 

366 
366 
3<>5 

3 a 5 

365 

366 

271 

272 

273 

272 

273 

271 

272 

274 

274 

275 
27 i 

276 

276 

273 

277 
277 
275 
273 

271 

177 

178 

473 

476 

476 

366 

366 

366 

405 

290 

290 

290 

367 
94 


Peach, grafting the 
Peaches, how to peel 
Pear Trees - 

protecting trunk of - 
Pears, to graft on apple stocks - 
to color - 
pruning dwarf - 
to keep - 

Peas, green, to preserve 
to stew 

Perspiration - 

Pickles, cucumber 
Picture Frames, to retouch 
Pie Plates and Phials, to cleanse 
Pie, apple - 
beefsteak - 
a delicious - 
cherry - 
chicken - 
cocoanut - 
lemon - 
lemon cream 
mince 

mock mince 
pork 
potato 
pumpkin 
resun ection 
rhubarb 
squash 

Pig, the form of a good 
how to select a 
Pigeon, wild, to trap 
Piles, symptoms and treatment - 
Pimples, treatment 
Pins, to make stay in a garment 
Phthisic - 
Plants in rooms 
Plates, cleaning dinner - 
Pleurisy, symptoms and treatment 
Plows, to keep bright 
Plowing, fall - 
Pneumonia, symptoms - 
Poisons and their Antidotes:— 
general rules - 
aconite 

alcohol, spirituous liquors 

ammonia 

antimony 

belladonna, hyoscyamus, etc. 
corrosive sublimate, bed-bug 
poison 

dog wood, poison ivy, etc. 
mushrooms 

opium, morphine, laudanum 

oxalic acid 

phosphorus 

poke root 

prussic acid 

salt petre 

Spanish flies 

strychnine 

sugar of lead, lead, etc. 


509 

339 
178 

34 0 

340 
339 
339 

34 1 
210 
210 

363 

438 

194 

178 

178 

39i 

39i 

391 

392 
392 
392 
392 
392 

392 

393 
393 
393 
393 
393 
393 
393 

26 

26 

265 

449 

437 

146 

446 
256 
178 

447 
95 
58 

447 

466 

467 

468 
466 

466 
468 

467 

468 

467 

468 
467 

467 

468 
46S 
468 

467 

468 
467 
467 





5io 


brand’s cyclopedia. 


Poisons and their Antidotes:— 
tobacco 
virdigris 
white vitriol 
Pone, bachelor’s 
Pork, making - 

to pickle Guernsey fashion 
Posts, durability of - 
gas tar for 
old, drawing out 
sagging of 
Potatoes, boiled 
early - 
English balls - 
fried 

how to drop - 
how to have mealy 
keeping in winter 
marking 
mashed 

planted deep - 
Sweet, to keep 
Poultry Houses - 
keeping - 

Propagation, by budding 
by cuttings 
by grafting 
by layers - 

Preserving fresh fruit in cans or jars 
Pruning apple trees 
the cherry 

the gooseberry and currant 

the grape 

old trees 

the peach 

the dwarf pear 

the plum 

the proper time for 
the root 
Pudding, apple - 

baked bread - 
baked flour 
Bancroft 
bread and butter 
beefsteak 
bird’s nest 

Boston - - - 

chancellor’s 

corn - 

com starch 

cracker 

cream - 

cup plum 

Exeter - 

hotel - 

how to make quick 
Indian huckleberry 
lemon - - - 

plum - 

rice, baked or boiled - 
rowley-powley - 
sago - 
suet - 
Pudding, tapioca 


468 

467 

467 

394 

95 

210 


97 

97 
9 * 
96 

367 

98 

367 

3 6 7 

98 
367 

99 
99 

367 

98 

211 

100 

211 


423 

4 i 7 

419 

4 i 7 

211 

426 

429 

427 

430 

425 

425 

428 

425 

431 

429 
394 

394 
396 

395 
395 
395 

394 

395 

395 

396 
396 
396 

395 
394 

396 

396 
394 

397 
397 

397 
399 

398 

399 
397 
399 


Puddings, queen of - 
Pumps, freezing 

to thaw - - - 

Pump, chain, putting in order - 
Putty Knife, how to make a 
Pumpkins, to dry 
Putty, old to remove 
Quails, trap for - 
Quince, pruning the 
Rabbit skins, to cure 
Rabbits, to trap 
Raccoon, to catch 

skins, to tan - 
Rack, feeding - 

for drawing wood 
Racks, hay and grain - 
Rain Gauge - 

Rain, signs of - 
Raspberry, and currant paste - 
Raspberries, culture of - 
transplanting 
Rat Trap - 

Rats, driving off 
Rats and Mice, keeping out 
Ratafia De Cerises 

Framboises - 
Rawhide, how to tan - 
use of - 

Razor Straps - 
Razor Strap, to renovate 
Reel, clothes line 
Refrigerators, out door - 
Regrafting large pear trees 
Rein Protector - 
Ribbons and Silks, to preserve 
Ring, tight how to remove 
Ringworm - 
Rocks, removing 
Rolls, breakfast 
cranberry 
graham raised 
Roofs, leaking - 
Root Cellars, above ground 
grafting - 
Roots, harvesting 
to preserve 
Rose Cuttings - 
Rose Rafh, treatment - 
Rotation of Crops 
Rugs, sheepskins or mats, to clean 
Rural Economy 
Rusks - 

Rust, from knives to remove 
preventing 
Ruta Bagas, storing 
Saint Vitus’ Dance 
Salad 

dressing - 

Russian - - - 

Salve, to make sticking - 
Sandwiches, Tongue 
Sauce, caper - 
chutney - 
for game or poultry 


397 

173 

146 

146 

146 
214 
178 
262 

343 
282 
262 
262 
282 

61 

147 
100 

102 

103 
405 

344 
347 
3* 
3* 
318 
404 
404 
282 

146 

147 

178 
179. 

148 
428 
148 

179 
179 
436 
148 
397 

397 

398 
H7 

!°3 

421 

104 
214 
256 

435 

104 

179 

107 
398 
179 

108 
214 

44 i 

367 

368 

367 

290 

398 

369 

37 0 

369 




INDEX TO CONTENTS. 


511 


Sauce, German custard - 
for pudding 
Shirley - 
Worcestershire - 
Sauer kraut, to make - 
Sausage, Bologna 

making 

Sausage-meat 
Sausages, summer, to make 


369 

369 

369 

369 

370 
215 

215 

215 

21 


Sawing and threshing by horse power 108 
Scalding tub 
Scarlet Fever, symptoms 
Screws, Jack - 
Scrofula - 

Scurvy - 
Sea-sickness 
Seed, Grass, testing 

quantity required an acre 
Self Pollution or Masturbation - 
September, work for 
Shad, to fry - 
Sheep - - - 

bringing out of winter 
constipation 
to destroy ticks 
foot rot - 
loss of appetite 
marking - 
rot - 

-scours - 
shearing apparatus for 
staggers - 
stretches in 
washing ■ 
wintering - 

Sheep Skins, to cure with wool on 
Shelter and Stables 
vShirt Bosoms, to polish 

and collars, to starch 
collars, to dress 
Shingles, fire proof 
Shingles, preserving 
Shoes - 
Shoe Soles, to save 
Shoeing, frequent best - 
Shovel, how to handle a 
Sick Headache - 
Silk, to wash - 
Sink, Improved - 
Skeleton Leaves, to make 
Skins, preservatives for 
Skunks - 

to destroy 
to trap - 
skins, to deodorize 
Sled, bob for logging 
Small Pox, symptoms - 
Snares - 

Smoke House, a good - 
Sneezing, to prevent 
Snipes, roasted - 
to shoot - 
Snow Balls - 
Snow Shovel, wooden - 


109 

433 
84 

457 

457 

449 

109 

110 

454 

52 

374 

60 

3 o 

12 

12 

12 

12 

32 

12 

12 

3 r 

12 

34 

34 

34 

283 

58 

181 

180 

181 
149 
149 
180 
180 
149 

IIO 

442 
180 

149 
405 

283 
319 
161 
262 

284 
6 7 

434 
262 
i 5 ° 

443 
370 
262 
398 

150 


Snow Plow 
Soap, arsenical - 
Soap, labor saving 
making 

Soap Suds, clearing 
Soda Cakes 
Soot, in chimneys 
Soluble Glue 
Sores, old and inveterate 
Soup, coloring for 
gumbo 
herb 

mock turtle 
ox-tail 

. pepper pot 
rice 
sago 
tomato 
stock for - 
vegetable - 
vermacelli 

Sows, with young pigs - 
' Spoon, self-holder for a 
Sprains and Bruises 
Squirrels, to trap 
Stains, acid 

alkaline - 

grease 

iron 

removing 

remove from marble 
sweat 
vegetable 
walnut - 
Stables, damp - 
Stacks and Straw 
I propping 

Starching, clear - 


151 

284 

181 

182 
180 

3 Z r 

180 

405 

461 

371 

37 2 
37 i 

37 1 
37 2 
37 2 

372 

372 

373 

37 1 

372 

373 
27 

181 
460 
263 
184 
184 
!8 3 
I §3 

18 3 

406 

184 

183 

407 
hi 
5 i 
hi 

184 

Stenciling, letters on portable articles 153 
Stoves, to polish - - 1S5 

Strawberry, improved implement 346 

transplanting - 347 

Stump Machine - - - 152 

Suet, to keep - - - 215 

Sugar Sand, to color - - 405 

Summer Complaint - - 455 

of children, 455 

squash, to cook - 373 

Sun Stroke - 440 

Suppression of Urine - - 452 

Swelling, White - - 460 

Sweet Breads, as cutlets - 373 

Swine - 53 

fed on skimmed milk - 27 

fits - 12 

measles - - - 13 

vermin - - - 13 

Syllabus, whip - 398 

Syphilis 453 

Syrup, blackberry - - 215 

aromatic blackberry - 215 

lemon - - - 216 

to color - - - 216 

Tables, without castors - 153 









brand’s cyclopedia. 


I 2 


Tables, Marble, to wash 

- 

176 

Veal, stewed - 

375 

Tackles and Ladders 

- 

153 

chops, breaded 

375 

Tallow, to bleach and harden 

- 

185 

cutlets, broiled 

375 

' Tanning, Currier’s paste for 

- 

284 

Vegetables, to boil 

376 

skirting for 

- 

284 

packing for winter - 

216 

size for 

- 

23 * 

to make tender 

376 

operation of - 

- 

284 

Venison, to roast 

376 

Tart, apple 

- 

399 

steaks, broiled 

37 6 

currant 

- 

400 

Ventilation - 

60 

grape 

- 

399 

Ventilators, for corn cribs 

155 

quince 

- 

400 

for grain bins 

154 

strawberry 

- 

400 

improvement in 

154 

‘Tartlets, hazelnut 

- 

400 

Vertigo, dizziness of the head - 

443 

linz 

- 

400 

Vinegar - 

57 

Tape Worms 

- 

45 2 

making 

217 

' Tea, art of making 

- 

373 

to prevent mother in - 

185 

Tea-Kettle, to prevent crust 

- 

185 

Vomiting - 

448 

'Teeth, to' clean - 

- 

458 

Waffles, raised - 

401 

Teething of Children - 

- 

455 

Wagons and Carriages, to make last 

114 

Tetter, Humid, symptoms 

- 

435 

Wagon or Wheeljack 

155 

crusted 

- 

437 

Walks, garden - 

114 

Thermometers - 

- 

113 

Wall and Board Fence - 

56 

Thistle Digger - 

- 

hi 

Walls, stone - 

54 

Thrush in Children, treatment 

- 

455 

Walls, whitewashed to prepare for 


Timber, Cutting 

- 

49 

painting 

189 

time for cutting 

- 

hi 

W arts - 

437 

land planting - 

- 

112 

Washing Clothes 

186 

raising young - 

- 

112 

hints on - - 

187 

Timothy Seed, sowing - 

- 

52 

fluid - 185, 187 

Tin Covers, to clean 

- 

185 

Watch, to wind - 

188 

Pans, to mend 

- 

185 

Water Barrel, a portable 

115 

Tomatoes, sweet, pickled 

- 

216 

bad in new wells 

188 

Tonsilitis 

- 

444 

bringing up a hill 

157 

Tool, a convenient 

- 

H 3 

good - 

61 

Tools, harvest - 

- 

49 

suggestions about conducting 

157 

in their place 

- 

154 

tile drains, velocity of 

156 

Toothache 

- 

468 

pumping up a slope 

158 

Traps, dead fall 

- 

263 

Water Proofing Cloth 

406 

mink, measels and skunks 

263 

to render fabrics 

406 

setting - 

- 

263 

Wedges, rebounding 

158 

Trappers, hints to 

- 

264 

Weeds, how to Destroy: 


Trees, luck with 

- 

349 

alder - 

409 

old renovating - 

- 

349 

blackberry or wild blackberry 

415 

straightening up 

- 

350 

bur-marigol#. stick-tight, or 


tin labels for 

- 

349 

Spanish needles - 

410 

Trellis, for flower pots - 

- 

257 

burdock - 

414 

Troughs, salt 

- 

61 

Canada thistle 

414 

Turkey, to choose 

- 

374 

cat tail, flag, or cooper’s reed 

414 

dressing for 

- 

374 

chamomile or large May weed 

411 

to roast 

- 

374 

chess, cheat or brown grass 

411 

.steamed 

- 

374 

chickweed - 

409 

stuffing for 

- 

375 

clot-bur, or cockle-bur 

410 

wild, to trap 

- 

265 

cockle - 

40Q 

Turnips, to cook 

- 

37-1 

cough-grass, quitch-grass, or quack- 

'Twine, waste 

- 

185 

grass 

415 

Tying Material for Farmers 


114 

elder bush - - - 

415 

Useful Receipts 


402 

false flax - - - 

409 

Uiine, inability to hold 


452 

fox-tail grass 

412 

Ulcers - 


458 

garlic, field garlic, or wild garlic 

413 

Ulcers, inward - 


458 

green amaranth 

411 

Varioloid, symptoms 


434 

horse nettle 

414 

Varnish, to make old dry 


274 

Jamestown weed, or stink weed 

411 

shellac, to make 


275 

lamb’s quarters, goose foot or pig 


Veal, to roast - 


375 

weed - 

411 





INDEX 

Weeds, how to destroy: 

John’s wort 
mallow - 
May weed - 
milk weed, or silk weed 
mullen 
ox-eye daisy 
nettle - 

poison hemlock 
poison sumach and poison vine 
poke, or poke weed - 
purslane - 
rag weed, or bitter weed 
red root - 
shepherd’s purse 
sorrel, or sheep sorrel 
sour dock, or curled dock - 
sweet flag, or calamus 
thistle, or horse thistle 
toad flax, or snap dragon 
tory weed, or hound’s tongue 
water hemlock 
wild mustard or charlock 
Weekly examinations 
Welding horn - 
Wen - 

What young people should know 
Wheat, manuring 


CONTENTS. 

Wheat, planting deep and shallow 

513 

116 

seed 

- 

50 

seed, cleaning 

- 

116 

smutty 

- 

116 

to prevent sprouting 

- 

115 

Whey, lemon, to make 

- 

401 

White swelling 

- 

460 

Whooping cough - 

- 

446 

Windows - 

- 

159 

Window blinds, the way to paint 

275 

Window sash, to keep up 

- 

179 

Winds, cold, avoiding - 

- 

189 

Wind mills 

- 

158 

Wind mills, force of 

- 

160 

Wine, elderberry - 

- 

218 

grape 

- 

218 

Wood, carrier 

- 

159 

drying 

- 

1 17 

jack, aconvenience 

- 

160 

piling cord 

- 

69 

quality of different kinds 

- 

H 7 

Wool, table for - 

- 

161 

Work shops and stormy days 

- 

161 

Worms - 

- 

452 

Yeast, mode of making - 

- 

401 

palats and yeast cakes 

- 

402 

to preserve 

- 

402 

milk 

- 

402 


TO 

412 

412 

410 

414 

410 

413 

413 

412 

415 

412 

409 

409 

410 

413 

413 

413 

413 

414 

414 

411 

414 

409 

189 

406 

460 

117 

50 

































* 




% 

















































































■ 





















































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* 

, 









































V 




t 




% 


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* 


% 







































